In addition to being aware of what is going on in your community, citizens can keep the following suggestions in mind to help maintain their safety at home.
Lock your vehicle every night and keep all personal property indoors. This includes your keys. Keep garage doors shut and locked to avoid access to your residence and property.
Install lights around the exterior of your house for nighttime hours. If you do not want to leave lights on for extended periods of time, install motion sensor lights.
Install an alarm system on your house and use it. Keep all doors to your residence locked, even while inside and outside your residence. It is possible that while you are distracted in your backyard, someone may enter your home through an unlocked front door. Do not keep spare keys in the immediate vicinity of your residential entrances. Install a peephole in your door. Install dead bolt locks.
Put jewelry and valuables in a locked safe with the code in a separate location. Be sure the safe is too large or heavy for someone to carry. Keep blinds/curtains closed at night. It is easy to view inside a lit residence, especially when it is dark outside.
While away on vacation ask a neighbor to keep an eye on your house. Notify the alarm company and advise the police department in case of emergency. Request the Postal Service to hold your mail until you return and do the same for newspaper subscriptions.
Set timers on lights so it appears the home is occupied. Do not post that you are going on vacation on social media websites, and do not set voicemail/answering machines indicating when you will return.
Nov. 15. Suspicious: The caller reports two people walking around a vacant home are now leaving in a vehicle at 3:43 a.m. in the 1600 block of Indian Wells Road.
Suspended registration: The traffic stop reveals several issues and the driver is now afoot at 8:27 p.m. in the area of U.S. Highway 93 and Veterans Memorial Drive.
Thought for the day: The two subjects looking for a friend they thought might have lived here are advised to find a better time to look up old friends.
Nov. 16. Suspicious: The caller states there is a very small child, wearing only a diaper, walking a dog on a leash in the middle of the roadway with no adult in sight at 9:49 a.m. in the 600 block of Don Vincente Drive.
Suspicious vehicle: The neighbor is concerned with an unfamiliar vehicle in the driveway and an open window at the residence at 2:09 p.m. in the 300 block of Cats Eye Drive.
Thought for the day: The child’s parent is eventually located (the child is uninjured) and the situation is under investigation by an outside agency.
Nov. 17. Suspicious vehicle: The reporting party is concerned with a vehicle parked nearby that seems to have a body in the backseat wrapped in a blanket at 12:30 a.m. in the 1000 block of Nevada Way.
Suspended registration: The unlicensed driver seems mystified when the tow truck arrives at 11:33 a.m. in the area of mile mark 11 on Interstate 11.
Thought for the day: The only potential victim needing the coroner is the officer when the sleeping occupant of the back seat abruptly sits up.
Nov. 18. Trespass: The shoplifter got away with the items but seems to have left their cellphone at 5:20 p.m. in the 1000 block of Nevada Way.
Petty theft: The caller states that a wallet has been lost and is believed to be in the possession of a store employee minus the cash and Nevada ID at 5:39 p.m. in the 800 block of Buchanan Boulevard.
Thought for the day: Some folks are just not cut out for a life of crime and that’s a good thing.
Nov. 19. 911 Abuse: A neighboring agency has asked us to make contact with a local subject who has called its emergency line a multitude of times and will be arrested if the trend continues at 9:54 a.m. in the 800 block of Nevada Way.
Assist: Volunteers doing streetlight checks report an open garage door at 8:55 p.m. in the 500 block of Bender Court.
Thought for the day: Abuse of 911 is a gross misdemeanor and could net the lucky winner a trip to Clark County Detention Center.
Nov. 20. Disturbance: The caller states a man jumped on a moving car’s hood and the vehicle drove off with the subject still perched there at 3:03 p.m. in the 1000 block of Nevada Way.
Reckless driving: The caller believes the driver must be intoxicated but tests indicate no impairment and a friend is on the way to ferry the exhausted driver at 10:22 p.m. in the area of U.S. 93 and Veterans Memorial Drive.
Thought for the day: The mating dance of the parking lot appears to have moved to a separate location.
Nov. 21. Suspicious vehicle: The owner of the vehicle advised he was waiting on his son and protecting his job site from thieves at 12:36 a.m. in the area of Adams Boulevard and Bristlecone Drive.
Fraud: The caller states a deceased relative allowed someone to use their address to receive mail but now a jury summons has arrived at 10:53 a.m. in the 800 block of Judi Lane.
Thought for the day: Despite being a diligent employee construction zones are off limits after dark unless otherwise indicated on the permit.
Call(s) of the week: Suspicious: The subject in the lobby is here to report walking in the desert with someone in a vehicle following them. Meanwhile, the other party comes in the lobby to report suspicious people walking in the desert area near where they live. (Detectives call this a clue.) Both parties are satisfied they are being overly cautious and the situation is no longer suspicious at 12:19 p.m. Nov. 20 in the 1000 block of Arizona Street.
Tina Ransom is a dispatcher with Boulder City Police Department. She is coordinator of the Boulder City Citizen’s Academy.