1. Tanglewood Neighborhood Association Safety News Hello and welcome to the second printing of the Tanglewood Neighborhood Association Safety News. A lot has happened since our last letter that we needed to get out to keep you informed. As the individuals who have signed into the Tanglewood Neighborhood Associations web site have found out, we have been having a rash of vehicle break-ins and criminal mischief in our neighborhood lately. The criminal activity that has happened in just the past couple months include 8 vehicles broken into and 2 houses. The houses broken into included an empty house where the owner just moved out, so nothing was taken, and criminal mischief in a garage left open. The common trend I am seeing with the vehicles being broken into is people leaving things in their vehicle that attracts the crooks and makes them a promising target. This includes: GPSs, purses, wallets, CDs, bags, computers, checkbooks, and garage door openers, which is the key to your house. Keep in mind this is not just happening in our neighborhood. I read the daily crime blotter every day (and those signed into the web site get to see a select few) and this is happening all over town—to include gated communities! So what can you do about it? First thing that can help is to leave some lights on around your house. The lighter it is the tougher it is to hide. Second, put a lock on your gate to your back yard. Most of the house break-ins I read about are entries from the rear of the house. The tougher you make it to get in and out from the back, the better. Third, do not leave ANYTHING in your vehicle! Unless you want it stolen. Getting your ID stolen is especially difficult to deal with, especially after it has been sold to a dozen different people in a week! And it just keeps perpetuating from there. So please don’t leave anything in your vehicles, not even in the consoles or trunks—THEY WILL FIND IT! And finally, if something does happen to you it is imperative that you call the police and report it. If they don’t know about it, it didn’t happen and no resources will be allocated to our area to fight the crime. Luckily, due to a diligent 15-year old who was up at 2:00 AM and heard something outside and called the police, two of the crooks were arrested before they left Tanglewood.  With all this said, I’ll ask you if you have checked out the Tanglewood Neighborhood Association web site yet? If not you can get to it by going to the following URL: http://www.tanglewoodneighborhood.com One thing I have that helped prevent a break-in of my vehicles on 11 July, is a security light camera. As you can see from an actual photo taken from my video, the individual was just about to break my window when the light came on with an aural warning and scared him away. If anyone recognizes this individual please call the police. I have handed over the video and pictures to them. You can purchase one of these cameras at Sams for $69.00. If everyone in the neighborhood had one I’m sure it would cut down on criminal activity. Click Here Once you get to the web page, you can click on the group email link above, which will take you to the following pages to join the Tanglewood group: Click Here Sign in Here An e-mail will be generated to the moderator (me) to approve you as a new member. Please put your name and address in the e-mail to me. I only check this once a day, so give your approval a day or two to work.

2. As you can see I have presented a lot of information here to help you out and get you thinking about safety. One of the best ways to get involved is to come to the Tanglewood Association Board Meetings. The Board Meetings are held every third Monday of the month at 7:00 PM. The next meeting will be next Monday, 17 Aug, at Bob Horth’s house, 4503 Shady Lane. At this meeting we will be discussing not only the safety issues affecting our neighborhood, but we will also be electing new board members, discussing the Christmas party, and any other issues pertaining to our neighborhood. The meetings are open to all Tanglewood Association members (you can also come to the meeting to join the association; bring your checkbook or $45.00).  If you are still having problems signing into the web sit you can e-mail me directly with your request to join, but again, please put your name and address on the request. I check them with our directory to make sure only Tanglewood people have access to the web site. My e-mail is: smith4800@sbcglobal.net Or you can call me directly at 691-7424. My name is Bill Smith.  Another way to get signed up quickly is to send or give me or any other current member of the Tanglewood group your e-mail address. We can then go to the “Invite” Tab (see below) on the web site and invite you to be a group member. I have used this a couple of times to invite some of my neighbors to join and it works great. Invite Here We highly encourage you to get involved in YOUR neighborhood! Please sign into the web site and come to the next meeting. Only through a concerted effort can we discourage neighborhood crime and make this a better neighborhood to live in—Thank You!