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As most of you know, we had a few attempted burglaries here at Arlington Oaks near the end of last year and at the very beginning of this year. These incidents all occurred prior to Value Properties taking over management responsibilities of this community. Unfortunately, most of these incidents were not reported to the police. When they were reported to the police, it was well after the fact. We have no way to be certain if better reporting would have helped control these problems but Arlington PD has made it very clear to me that they cannot help if they are not informed of a problem.

We now find ourselves looking at a troubling trend. In the past 10 days or so, we have had three to five more reported burglary incidents on Arlington Oaks property. There may very well be more that were not reported to APD or this office. I cannot be certain of all the details because only two of those who filed police reports informed the office of the incident as well. This is not necessarily a problem by the way. The police should always be called first. It's nice to get a report here in the office but it is imperative that the police are notified immediately.

 

This is what we think we know. Increase in activity seems closely related to our warmer weather. Every incident reported involved entry or attempted entry through an open window after cutting the screen away (if there was one) enough to allow entry. In all but one incident, the target was a ground floor unit. One second floor unit was targeted and it seems a ladder was used to access the open window. Additionally, we have reason to believe that the individual or individuals responsible for these acts are specifically targeting women who live alone. It is not at all certain that theft is the objective in these incidents.

 

Management has been in contact with the Arlington Police Department several times over the last four weeks. After what appeared to be an isolated incident in early March I met with Officer Robinson here at the property to discuss what I thought might be an indication of a looming problem coming on the heels of concerns from the preceding three months. Officer Robinson referred Heather Hurlock to our community after that meeting. Heather is an Auxiliary Police Officer with the Arlington Police Department and a Crime Prevention Specialist. My meeting with Heather Hurlock took place around the time of our last Board of Directors meeting. At this meeting, she committed to conducting several walk throughs of Arlington Oaks with different Arlington police officers on multiple occasions and evaluate our community for improvements to address these concerns. Heather contacted me yesterday morning to see if I could meet with her and discuss the findings of their Security Assessment of Arlington Oaks. That meeting took place yesterday afternoon. Heather's report identifies numerous modifications and some improvements that we should make as well as a few other secondary considerations she believes are worthwhile improvements in a general sense. These changes could prove to deter some criminal intent and would definitely help the police when they are patrolling our property or responding to our community.

 

She also repeated her earlier observations

 

I don't wish to put too hard an edge on this. We will follow through on every recommendation we can in as timely a manner as possible but these are only enhancements to provide a more secure environment. When you call the APD for help, they will respond as immediately as they can but in most cases, this response is after the fact of a possible criminal incident. Your personal security is your responsibility.

 

Please " ... lock your doors, lock your windows and call the police if you see something suspicious ... ".

 

If you have any questions or concerns please contact me at your convenience.

 

Sincerely,

Community Manager