Rumor control - late night aid requests

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The below email is apparently making its way around the various email chains and I wanted an opportunity to head off any possible hysteria it might create. Although I am certainly not disputing the information contained in the email. simply because we have no knowledge of the situation, I do want to make a couple of comments.

I have already been asked about any reports of "late night knocking on doors" by one of our members. As a result of that inquiry, I contacted the Lieutenant in charge of our Crimes Against Persons Unit to see if he was familiar with any "Home Invasions" in East Cobb that I wasn't familiar with. He said that he was not. This was last week.

In reading the below email, it would appear that these incidents may not have been reported to the police as suspicious activity. One of the involved parties apparently is a retired Atlanta SWAT member who offered some reasonable advice when confronted with this situation. What I disagree with is the comment that "home invasions and people coming in to scope out neighborhoods is happening more and more out here". I read all of the incident reports written on a daily basis by Precinct Four officers and I can say that is not the case in East Cobb.

We do not have an increase in occurrences of home invasion.

Also, although it is true that some "burglars" will knock on a door to confirm whether or not someone is home, this is normally done during the day time when they would expect the homeowner to be at work. Most burglars are cowards and do not want contact with the homeowner. It would be a rare case when they would do that at night when most homeowners are.... home.

I have kept you informed thru PENS of the increase in Entering Auto reports. Most of these occur at night in our residential communities, involving unlocked cars being entered to steal expensive items left inside the car. This is the biggest thing going on in East Cobb.

I have provided the below email to the Crimes Against Persons Lieutenant to confirm that they are unfamiliar with any such incidents. Should there prove to be a problem, I'll let you know.

Here is the fast traveling email-

Early Wednesday morning, July 23rd, at 2:35 a.m. I heard loud knocking on our front door. Our upstairs a/c unit is in the process of getting switched out, so my three kids and two of their friends were sleeping downstairs, three in the living room, two in the sunroom. I don't go to sleep until later than that so I was still awake upstairs. I sat there for a second, stunned and unsure I was truly hearing knocking when sure enough, the loud, insistent knocking on the front door window happened again. I quickly got dressed, woke my husband and hurried downstairs to make sure all the children were okay. I told them to stay back and I turned the front door lights on and saw a black girl standing on my front porch. She had on a tight black t-shirt, black sweatpants that were pulled over red nylon athletic shorts. Her hair was pulled back in a pony tail, although it wasn't long enough to fit in the band so hair all around the top of her head was standing up but going back in the direction of the band.

I was very angry at her boldness and asked her through the closed door what she thought she was doing. My husband was standing in the hall at this point. She waved a black cell phone at me and said her phone was dead and she needed to call her mom. I have NEVER seen this girl in our neighborhood before. I asked her again, what do you think you're doing?? She said she lives on Burnleigh Chase and has a friend on Riverhill Road. So I asked her Well then, why are you knocking on MY door? By this time, I've opened my front door and am standing on our porch. I handed her my phone and said, Nothing you are saying makes one lick of sense. Call your mom. She dials the phone, surprise surprise, no one answers on the other end, she hands it back and tells me what I already knew and immediately leaves.

About 15 minutes later, I take our German Shepherd out front and without a leash, let her roam in front of our house and near our neighbors. I'm looking at all the houses and I'm thinking, why did she come to OUR house??? All our lights were off. As I looked up and down our street, the five houses around us all had outdoor lights on to some degree except my house and the house across the street.

The reason I'm writing this is because when my boys were at tennis practice Thursday morning, four ladies were playing in the next court. As they came off, I called two of my friends over and said, hey something weird happened at our house last night. One of the ladies replied something happened at her house also and wanted to hear my story. When I finished telling the ladies, she said the same girl came knocking on her house with the same story and her husband gave her a phone to call her mom, at 2:10 a.m. She said they also didn't have any outdoor lights on. My other friend said someone was knocking on her door late also, but by the time she got to the door, whoever it was gone.

The father of one of the girls that spent the night is retired Atlanta SWAT. When I spoke with him about what happened, he had several responses. First and foremost, DO NOT OPEN YOUR DOOR to ANYONE at ANY POINT IN THE DIALOG. Speak through the window with your phone in your hand to let whoever is out there know that someone is home. If they need to make a phone call, offer to make it for them, you safely locked inside your home, the other people safely outside your home. I was told that if I had not let them know someone was home, they could have broken the door down thinking the house was empty. He said home invasions and people coming in to scope out neighborhoods is happening more and more out here. He said he felt that one or two guys could have been hiding in the bushed ready to overpower me. People that are perpetrating these home invasions usually have a young woman knock on the doors. He said women can be just as dangerous as men and we need to start understanding that. He also said KEEP YOUR OUTDOOR LIGHTS ON WHEN YOU GO TO BED. He advised me to report what happened to the police, which I am in the process of doing and he HIGHLY recommended I send a detailed e-mail out to everyone we know and have them continue passing it on to everyone they know. It is not a Westchester issue only. These people are looking in Chatsworth, Garrison Oaks, Hedgerow and all around Mabry and Sandy Plains.

It's good that we have three dogs, however, now that someone has specifically targeted our house, I can assure you we are in the process of acquiring additional protection..

Please remember to visit our website at www.p4.police.cobbcountyga.gov for the PENS Dispatch, daily crime reports, crime stats, crime prevention and questions and answers.

Should your neighborhood have a Neighborhood Watch Coordinator, please share this information.

Lieutenant Mark Chenoweth
Cobb County Police Department
Crimes Against Property
Precinct 4

Cobb County...Expect The Best

www.cobbcounty.org