• Neighborhood Watch Meeting October 2018

The topic for the October 30, 2018 Neighborhood Watch meeting was Identity Theft and Mail Theft. I'll include the 57 minute video of the meeting for you to watch at your leisure. (video link)

This meeting was a "block captains" meeting, and it was opened to everyone in Wildomar and Lake Elsinore. I counted twenty-one people in attendance.

Investigators Brandon Cardinale(R) and Jeremy Klemp(L) led the hour long meeting.

The bullet points from the meeting included: 
  •  Sign up for "informed delivery" (a free service from the post office that lets you see what is to be delivered ahead of time)

Link to informed delivery

  •  If out of town, put a hold on your mail with the post office. (This can be done online)

  •  Bring in your mail every day

  •  If your mail is stolen:

        •  Immediately run a credit report
        •  File a report with BOTH the post office and law enforcement
        •  Immediately run a credit report
  •  If you are a victim of identity theft:
        •  get all the information you can from your credit card company so that you can give it to the police. If you wait for the investigators to serve search warrants, it could slow the case down by several weeks to several months.
        •  Freeze your credit (consider doing this before you're a victim)
  •  Shred your junk mail (at least the part with your name on it)
  •  If you fell for an international scam, use the website called IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center)

  •  Holiday season means an increase in package theft
  •  Run your credit information at least once a year
  •  Be a "good witness"
        •  This can't be overstressed. If you see a crime, in addition to calling and reporting it, you need to be able to describe what it is you saw. Full descriptions of people, places and vehicles will make the chances of catching the perps a better bet.

Below is the contact info for our local investigators.

If there are misspellings, it's on them.

Much of the above is basic common sense stuff, but the crime rate suggests that many people aren't employing enough of it at any one given time. We can't prevent all crime, but by avoiding things that make us more of a target will go a long way in reducing the chances of being a victim.

•                •                •

Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
– Aristotle

Wildomar Rap can't act its way out of a wet paper bag.

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