By Julie Rawlins
Special to the Enterprise
Two years ago our development, Highlands South, a subdivision of 30 homes, was experiencing auto break-ins, auto theft, and mail theft, but we did not know how big the problem was.
Since we didn’t all know each other, nobody knew that their problems were happening to others in the neighborhood. One night one of my neighbors across the street had their car stolen out of the driveway.
This spurred my neighbor Elaine Craig and I to start looking for ways to make our neighborhood less likely to be victimized. Officer Michelle Pellettieri, Mill Creek police’s crime prevention officer, was instrumental in giving us information and helping us to start a neighborhood Block Watch program. Our very first meeting, led by Pellettieri, was in my home.
Our subdivision decided to change to security mailboxes. Working with the Bothell Post Office, which subsidized our new boxes, we collected signatures and money from our neighbors to do this. A couple months later we had security mailboxes.
Next came our Block Watch sign mounted near the entrance of our subdivision, which Pellettieri assisted in acquiring. That summer we had our first annual National Night Out neighborhood potluck.
Since that time we have put together a neighborhood directory and become much more watchful of our neighborhood. The most important result is that we have all grown to know each other better as neighbors.
In this busy day and age, it’s rare that 30 neighbors know each other by name. We are much more vigilant about questioning and reporting people out of place in our neighborhood and have lost our fear of reporting non-emergencies to the police.
Last week we had our second annual National Night Out potluck. Those who came had a great time and we expect to continue this for a long time to come.
Experiencing theft and vandalism is a terrible thing, but out of it our neighborhood was brought closer together in a wonderful way. Our thanks to Officer Pellettieri and the Bothell Post Office for their help and assistance.
Julie Rawlins is a resident of the Highlands South neighborhood in Mill Creek.
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