Dear fellow Greenvillites, I certainly write this with some trepidation but after being asked by a member of this group to share our experience with a drug house, we felt we needed to respond. Dave and I live on East Stewart Avenue, a quiet, family oriented neighborhood mostly inhabited by working class folks. We mostly keep our homes nice, we care about our town and our street. We had a drug house move in across from our home about a year and a half ago. Cars were continually turning around in our and our neighbors driveways at all hours of day and night, cutting through our yards from adjacent streets, and staying across the street for maybe, MAYBE 5 minutes. DAY and night. At one point the man living there even came to the car in his underwear (at 10 am) to hand someone a package and take something from them. sigh. Our greatest asset, our home, was being devalued right before our eyes. One of our neighbors sons even sat on his porch at night with a gun! Out of control anger and fear and anxiety. Many of the neighborhood are at least on speaking terms and as we saw each other working in our yards, walking the dog, etc...we could talk of nothing else. The drug house had to go. One of the neighbors called Denny Stephens who routed us to the PA Attorney Generals Drug Task Force Office. There were SEVEN families who monitored and called in license plates of those frequenting the house. The man living there was on probation and as soon as he broke that with a known criminal (or whatever the legal speak term is) frequenting his house, they could come in and do a search of his house. There had to be probable cause. It took 6-8 months. My husband and I pretty much gave up but continued writing license numbers down. Three families toward the bottom of the street did the same. The group at the end of the street, the same. Other neighbors did the same. Occasionally we would get a call from the AG office for a list of numbers. It was ridiculously slow and aggravating. We locked down everything we owned and worried day and night. Porch lights and back yard lights burned every night. I kept my gun nearby (Im a country girl and definitely know how to shoot, but pray I never need to. My husband is a 15 year Air Force Veteran, so we both agreed on having it. Yes, it IS that scary) and my dog is a good little watchdog, a barker. Even so, we still felt horribly violated and vulnerable. So did our entire neighborhood. Finally, (on a day I wasnt home, unfortunately) five police cars came flying up the street (before anyone could warn the drug house on scanners, and believe me, they DO that) and officers surrounded the house. The druggies were arrested and are still doing jail time. Thank God. Will they be back? Maybe. The house is substandard by anyones judgment and there has been quite a crew in and out. As long as they arent dealing meth, pills or crack, I dont really care. I DO think the neighborhood made it perfectly clear. Stay the HELL off our street. We will not tolerate it. We are watching. If you want peace and law abiding citizens in your neighborhood I would suggest three things. First of all, TALK to your neighbors. Solidarity. Of utmost importance. One family complaining will become a target but seven or more is pretty hard to attack.. Second, call the police, call the police, CALL THE POLICE. Dont be stupid about it. Let them know times and license numbers and information. Opinions and emotions dont make arrests. Information and being the squeaky wheel DOES get action. Tell them to keep it off their radios and not to use sirens. These criminals have scanners. There may or may not be dishonest cops, but there certainly are tech savvy criminals in Greenville. Dont underestimate. Dont confront, but more than once residents on our street told their CUSTOMERS (who mostly looked to be about 16-20 years old in brand new cars!) to get off our street. Third, call the AGs office. Call again. Call again. Call again. One of the neighbors put it in her phone to remind her to call every MONDAY WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY. Funny but not. Not at all. It worked. I hope this helps. We all want to live at peace. Actually there is a law in the Greenville Borough (or a statute or whatever its called) stating everyone has the right to live peacefully in their homes. Our homes are our greatest asset. These low lifes dont want attention. If you ignore them, you cant really whine when they only get worse. Stand together and make a difference. It takes energy and risk. Knock on neighbors doors and get help. Get outside and TALK to each other. Lets quit slamming our town and FIX it! It begins one street at a time. Thank you for your time, I realize this is lengthy, but hopefully it helps.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 12:21:14 +0000
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