It’s Our Responsibility

One of the common topics we seem to write about in the Times has been burglary. Frankly, I have been surprised by how many burglaries have been reported and actually taken place in our valley, specifically in Dayton.

When writing a story last month after a couple of burglaries in Starbuck, our Columbia County Sheriff Walt Hessler said the economy is to blame for the rise in burglaries. Also, offenders getting out of the state prison too early may be a factor, he said. Part of the reason burglary has also been in the limelight lately is because of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office search for months to track down a transient who had been breaking into vacant homes all over town. That man, Daniel Baxter, is still being held in jail in Pomeroy.

I spoke with Hessler when I first got to the Touchet Valley and was writing about all of the burglaries related to the squatter. Hessler said it wouldn't be long before the offenders cross the county line and start hitting homes in Waitsburg. Recently in Waitsburg, we had some residential burglaries on Coppei Avenue. Hessler was right.

Having covered many small communities like Waitsburg, Dayton and Prescott in my career, the large number of these burglaries here is shocking. Some in our communities have complained that the sheriff and his deputies aren't doing their jobs in Dayton, or complained that the Walla Walla County deputies take too long to respond.

It's time to stand up and take responsibility for ourselves, and especially for our neighbors whom we care about, and deter burglaries rather than issuing blame to different parties.

It's not about paranoia, it's happening.

The best thing we can do is be nosy neighbors. That means keeping tabs on the coming and goings in your neighborhood. Tell your neighbors when you are heading out of town for the weekend. Trade contact information so your neighbor can call you if something looks suspicious at your house when you are gone.

In November 2011, my parents, who live in a quiet suburban cul-de-sac in Bellevue, were robbed in the middle of the day with every neighbor home. My mother had gone shopping for a couple of hours and returned to find the house ransacked and our red-and-white Welsh Springer Spaniel dog shivering upstairs on the bathroom counter.

One of the neighbors admitted seeing a silver car in our driveway, but said later it didn't cause alarm because they believed it may have been my sister's. They did not call my mother or the police even though they saw something suspicious.

After the burglary of my parents' home, the residents put together a neighborhood watch program and cut down large trees and bushes so they could see each other's houses better. The neighbors felt a lot of guilt for seeing suspicious activity and not reporting it or contacting my family.

There are lots of measures we can, and should take, to make sure we are keeping our homes safe and intruders out. The website http://tulane.edu/publicsafety/downtown/crime_ prevention/ home_ burglary.cfm has lots of ideas on how to keep your home safe from burglars. Some tips include leaving on two lights in different parts of the house when you are not home and even leaving the radio on. Putting noisy gravel under windows is great too. Lighting outdoors is important, so make sure all sides of your home is lit. And I like the most basic idea - lock your doors, with a deadbolt.

Our Office Manager Tawnya has a security system that she adores. It contacted the security company and the sheriff's office when her Schwan's delivery man accidentally set off her alarm recently. And she was happy to report the sheriff's deputy arrived very quickly.

Car prowlers are also being reported in Waitsburg and Dayton, so remember to lock your car and keep valuables out of sight or maybe in the house.

Whether it really is the poor economy or the bad guys getting out of prison too soon, it doesn't really matter because the reasons people break into homes will come and go. We need to take our security into our own hands and make the number of burglaries in our communities to decline again.

Jillian Beaudry

Managing Editor