Posts
This one comes courtesy of Miss Behaven:
What is wrong with people in the world!! On Sunday night a car near the M building on the Williams side was being attempted to have their catilatic converter stolen. If not for the great watch of a resident in building L, who came out with a bat and confronted the guys trying to steal. And this was at around midnight! Our neighbor was unable to get any more info other than a silver older model Hyundai with no license plate, which now has a broken glass(our resident hit them as they were driving away!)Please be on the lookout and thank you to our great neighbor for stopping these scums of the earth from vandalizing our hard earned personal property!
Finally some vengeance, I'm trying to get a better description of the vehicle so that we can post up a similar picture here so that residents will know what to look out for.
Joe, not to bug but any news on the cameras? In the meantime can you relay any of this information to our security guard?
19 COMMENTS:
Catalytic Converters (cats) are the new hot ticket among car part theives. They can fetch over $100 each on the used part market. The most succeptable cars are older model trucks, especially Toyotas. The cats can unbolt from the underside of the car in under 3 minutes. Would be thieves don't even need creepers on trucks since you can just crawl under them.
Having a cat replaced can cost you upwards of $500. Sometimes even more. There is really no good defense against having the cats stolen. You can weld the bolts onto the exhaust piping, but that would be more work when the part needs servicing.
Anyway, good job with the bat!!! Lets not forget that we live in Santa Ana!
Vigilante justice has found a home in Santa Ana.
Great work batter!
The issue with the cameras is that the company that is to install them wants all the money (over $30 thousand dollars) for the job up front. Charity is working to defend the interests of the community by not ceding to their wishes. If they are a reputable company, they would take a 10% or 20% deposit to begin the work, maybe another 30% or 40% when the job is half way done and finally the balance upon satisfactory compeltion of the job. IF the associationis to pya all the $ up front, the camera company has no incentive to do a quality job. Sure they could be sued but that of course would be years & thousands upon thousands more in litigation.
I'm not sure how effective cameras would be... especially considering most people are reporting the thefts just outside our complex on williams and wellington. anyone think coming more proactive like this would be feasible?
http://www.californiaspecialpatrol.com/services.html
We would mainly need these services 5 days a week 10pm-5am. These days could be random. People targeting this area would get the picture that there is someone proactively patrolling the area and I would assume the thefts would decrease much quicker than cameras.
Cameras are a done deal, we got everything worked out and the install should happen sometime next week.
footballrules, the reason the company is asking so much up front is to cover equipment cost. They aren't even charging for install up front. Obviously they are going to do a good job if they want to get paid in full. The project has been delayed enough, and look how many different crimes have taken place recently. Those responsible could have been caught by now if we would have had the cameras installed sooner.
Anonymous, I'm not sure if you've ever been to one of our HOA meetings but we've had a security guard, for about a year now, which has had no real positive effect for the community. Really it doesn't matter who we go with, the complex is just too big for any one security guard to handle. The whole idea behind the cameras is that we as homeowners will have the ability to survey the cameras. This would require that homeowners become more proactive, but if you think about it, who would have our community's best interest in mind; us as homeowners, or a security guard?
My plans are to hopefully re-hire a security guard for the next fiscal year,'09, or re-explore the possibility of having entry/exit gates installed.
Great job to the owner who stepped it up and took matters into their own hands. I'd love to have you on the safety committee. I would say you deserve this months, "Ben Dayhoe Like" Vigilante Award. If your not sure who Ben Dayhoe is click on his name above.
jobocop -
I was under the impression that the entry/exit gates were not a feasible option. i thought i had seen it mentioned elsewhere on the blog that the entrance/exits need to be a certain width (20 ft?) in order to meet code.
I could be incorrect, but I'll try to find where that was mentioned and see if I can find anything else elsewhere.
Initially I was told that entry gates needed to be 60ft from the street. I went to the City of Santa Ana and verified that. As it was thought before, it would just be too hard and cost too much to have all four gates sit back 60ft.
With some help from a friend I studied all the entrances and noticed that with the current design there was a way to make gates work well abiding to the City's rules. The two entrances that would best accommodate the 60ft would be the Williams St. entrance near L & M and the Wellington St. entrance. The 60ft. set back would not interfere with any carports.
But what about the other two points of entry right, well my plan is to make these Exits Only. That would mean that they would only need to by one car length away from the street. Essentially what we would have is 2 entrances and 2 exits on the property.
I know it would be an inconvenience to a lot of people who enter off of Cabrillo but it really would cut down on the cross traffic and speeders that we get going through the long stretch of road. This would also keep us up to Fire Code.
so the two entrances(wellington and williams) would not be exits and entrances?? you would only be able to exit the two that are "only" exits(cabrillo)??
Strike that the two entrances could also be exits but we would have the Cabrillo and south Williams POE dedicated to being exits only because there is not enough room for the 60 foot clearance.
I am all for it, how do we get it into motion??!!
Our '08 budget is going to be tight, I'm not sure that it is really going to allow for us to install gates. I will make an effort to further research the possibilities. I will have a couple companies come out and gives us some estimates as I did in the case of the security cameras, which by the way should be going up next week. I'm still looking for members to join the safety committee.
This could be a double-edged, in that while it has the potential to keep others out, it's not certain to. I can imagine the inconvenience that those who have parking spots by the would-be entrance would have, and even those whose parking spaces are by the exits - having to drive all the way around, granted it's not that far, but a slight inconvenience nonetheless.
And yes, I do understand that the intent is to protect our vehicles, and perhaps, used in conjunction with that security cameras, it could work wonders.
I guess I haven't had good experiences with gates - people waiting at the gate, for someone to let them in, people who shouldn't be coming in who do come in after someone with a gate opener, any potential traffic that could come from everyone entering/exiting at one location, etc.
It has the air of a good idea, I'm just...I guess I'm sort of on the fence with this. Perhaps a mention at the next meeting?
I would also love to get gates installed. It is true that it wouldn't stop everyone from getting in. However, it would make it more difficult, which is the point in my opinion. It would also cut down on people cutting through the alleys and thus reduce crimes of opportunity. Since garages are not a viable option, gates with cameras are our best option.
I know Joe was told gates would cost somewhere around $200K. We don't currently have that available in the budget. I'm afraid it would have to be a special assessment of approx $735 per person, but based on the current economy I would guess people would shortsightedly not authorize it. I'm hoping we can build support for the idea over the course of the next few months and get people to agree to this. My fingers are crossed....
Me to Sarah, and actually the number might be significantly lower according to a talk I had with an apartment complex manager who lives nearby. It would raise property value significantly due to the fact that no nearby communities have them, I'm talking along Cabrillo.
The cameras should start to deter criminals because they'll realize that there are easier communities to hit nearby. No offense to them but it keeps us safer.
We need to make sure that the presence of the cameras in known to ALL! Cameras won't do us any good if people don't know they are being watched.
The tricky point is not to put up too many signs that make our community look like crap.
I would think that it is better to prevent a crime because the cameras deter them, than to catch a criminal after the crime has been committed.
Signs will go up, its the law, I'll make sure they don't look tacky. Does anyone have any request where they would like a camera installed. I can't guarantee that we'll have one in that location but it will be considered. Still looking for members.
I would love to have one installed by the Williams entrance, it seems that the spots and carport by the walkway going inbetween the M & L building are contantly being targeted, 5 incidents that i can think of off the top of my head and that has only been in the last year!Unfortunantly it seems that basicaly the any area by any main entrance is targeted due to easy entrance and exit (escape) routes.
Just a suggestion:
Instead of installing gates, we could install those poles that go up and down. Not sure what they are called, but they are commonly found at parking garages.
If the goal is to restrict unauthorized drive-through traffic, this could be just as effective as a gate. Most of all it would be more cost effecient.
What about just installing one of those security arms, we have those where I work and it only lets one vehicle pass at a time. Each person would need an electronic card to get in and it wouldn't look ugly. Only thing I would be worried about is it getting destroyed by vandals.
Post a Comment