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The Log Cabin Democrat
March 29, 2006
Opinion Section, page 5a
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Letters: Community watch needed
Roger and Kellie Richmond Conway
On Wednesday evening between the hours of 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. on March 8 individuals burglarized and ransacked our home. We have no regular schedule and work out of our home. We buy sell and develop real estate and each of us are very active with our four children - soccer, football, cheer, track and the list goes on and on. The children's activities are a job of their own.
On this particular evening we were gone together by happenstance. One of our daughters had a cheerleader training event that was a last minute schedule that lasted from 5:30 to 6:30. Roger had a meeting in town at 5:15 p.m. and had left our home at 4:30 p.m. We as a family decided to go to our new church building, The River, at 800 Nabco Drive to finish some upholstery work for the new furnishings. We all met there at about 6:45 and left at 7:50 p.m. in order for the children to get home and complete their homework. Upon arriving at home at 8 p.m. we found the back door kicked in and our house ransacked.
The children were terrified and did not want to even stay in the house that night. I convinced them to not be terrified but to be angry about what somebody had done to us and for us to take a very proactive approach and do our best to see that these individuals are apprehended.
The next morning we recruited a couple of neighbors and started calling all the pawn shops in a five-county area and sending them a list of all the property that was stolen from us. We additionally offered a $5,000 reward. We then started spreading the word by putting out fliers at all the gas stations and convenience stores. We additionally went door to door to let all our neighbors know about the burglary.
We are now apprehensive about both of us leaving the house, and of course our daughters are too terrified to stay home alone, even for a short time, not that we would even consider letting them after this incident.
The scary part is, what if my wife and daughters had come straight home from cheer practice and walked in on these individuals. It's clear they have very little or no regard for their impact on life.
Our house has a security system, however we never used it before because we were always in and out so much, but all the signs were in the yard and on the windows and doors which were of no aversion to the intruders.
At this time no one has been apprehended and we are receiving so much community support and have received several leads which have been forwarded to Investigator Nokes with the Sheriff's Office. There was another burglary on Saltillo Road last week.
We as a community want to send a message that this is simply not acceptable in our community. We are all working class people who are raising children and the invasion of the sanctity of our homes will not be tolerated. At this time we are looking at placing license plate cameras along Saltillo Road so that anybody traveling through will be caught on camera.
The community is also considering forming a neighborhood watch group. In short, we are going to do whatever it takes to stop this kind of activity in its tracks.
We are also calling on all the churches in the area and are encouraging them to be more proactive regarding the health of our community.
We each share an individual responsibility to each other as neighbors and members of the community.