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Original printed byline: Donnie Lottes
We have a large number of people in our community who devote much time, effort and energy to the ART of BLOCKWATCHING — and believe me, it is an Art!
It requires good eyesight, steady nerves, numerous trips to the window and a ready hand for the telephone. One must also have a knack for distinguishing between normal neighborhood activity and abnormal neighborhood activity (and in our community that’s not always so easy to do).
Occasionally, in the pursuit of perfecting the Art of Blockwatching, some faces have been known to turn very, very red.
Things sometimes get a little out of hand. Take, for instance, the case of the vigilant Blockwatcher who has called the police several different times about a man trying to break into the home across the street, only to find on each occasion, it was the owner of the house who habitually forgets his key and locks himself out.
Then there is the case of the Blockwatcher who called the police to report two young men as “suspicious characters.” The men had been sitting in a parked car near her home for quite a while. “They weren’t really doing anything, but they certainly looked suspicious.” After the police had responded to the call and questioned the men, our Blockwatcher was informed they were members of the Decoy Squad — on assignment!
Another experienced Blockwatcher, knowing that her neighbors were out of town, saw a light in their kitchen. After discussing the situation with several other blockwatchers they decided to call the police. They found out later that the light had been on for a week. She simply hadn’t noticed it before.
One Blockwatcher really went above and beyond the call of duty. Two women had been abducted and forced to drive to our Blockwatcher’s street. The ladies, in a last ditch effort to gain aid, rammed their car into another car, thereby arousing a number of people. After summoning the police, and administering First Aid to the ladies, our Blockwatcher lent one of the detectives her daughter’s red wig, suede coat and pocketbook and sent him forth to act as a decoy in hope of catching the abductor. The disguise didn’t work and the abductor wasn’t caught. But then that might be because the detective looked more like Twiggy than Raquel Welch, and you can’t blame our Blockwatcher for that!
As I said before — blockwatching is an Art. Despite occasional lapses, members of this fearless group have had a hand in foiling numerous burglary and robbery attempts, apprehending an extremely elusive young man with a zipper problem, reporting unusual and suspicious activities in our area, having unsightly derelict cars removed and generally aiding the police in trying to keep our neighborhood the kind of place we want it to be.
Hats off to all you Blockwatchers — keep up the good work!
Originally published in The Paper, May 1972.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1972_05.pdf, printed page 2.
