Back in May of 1982, my wife and I moved into our first house on Stuart Hall Road. Three children later, we transitioned to our current home on Sweetbriar Road.
This subdivision, Rollingwood, has been good to our family. We’ve have cherished friends, our kids navigated elementary and middle school at the Tuckahoes, and graduated from Freeman. In the days of summer, Ridgetop was an enjoyable part of that mix, but I still say swim meets were overly long.
The neighborhood has endured harsh winter storms, hurricanes, microbursts, and healthy looking trees that decided to tumble down on pretty blue sky days. Its relatively quiet streets are a good place to walk, run, ride a bike, and for kids to explore and play.
We’ve seen deer, black snakes, blue herons, raccoons, opossums, scampering chipmunks, flitty bluebirds and goldfinches, heard the hoot of owls, and the squawk of the red-tailed hawks during our time here.
Through the years, we’ve enjoyed watching the construction of additions to houses, and in some instances, demolition of an old home so a whopping new one can take its place.
Since 1982, my only constant complaint is my annual battle with the leaves. Don’t get me wrong, I love our trees especially the grandeur of the colors they give us in the fall. But, clearing them from the yard, our borders, and the confines of shrubbery wears on me more now.
And, I’ll add two more whines, I’m always concerned when a driver barrels down one of our streets or fails to properly stop at our stop signs. My concern is—I don’t want the worse to happen.
Another selling point about Rollingwood is its close proximity to grocery stores, shopping centers, medical offices, schools, churches, and hospitals. Additionally, within easy hearing distance are a fire station and rescue squad.
In our years of living in Rollingwood, we’ve been very lucky—we’ve had no problems with crime at our home.
We’ve talked with next door and across the street neighbors who noticed their dog made quite a commotion one night, or some muddy human footprints appeared on backyard decking. Those footprints had not been there the previous afternoon.
From time to time, our own carelessness has allowed some stealthy person or persons to rummage through unlocked cars or walk away with an unsecured bicycle. A few times an intruder has entered a home, but not too frequently.
Once when we lived on Stuart Hall Road, I recall hearing the unsettling crunch of feet on our gravel driveway in the middle of the night. Another time, what turned out to be a stolen car sat on Stuart Hall Road for a few days before it was reported to the police.
Not even church property is immune from thievery. A few years ago during Christmas at Trinity, someone fully removed several copper gutters. Also, we had a catalytic converter cut out from a church van.
More recently, on the morning of Thursday, February 29, we learned through social media that unlocked cars had been intruded upon by someone who had nothing better to do than to disrupt the lives of nice people. The most concerning was the theft of a neighbor’s car where Stuart Hall and Sweetbriar roads meet.
Our bedroom is on the back of our house, so hearing the slightest noise from our front yard isn’t likely.
Yet, if you are like me, it absolutely amazes me that no one hears or sees these perpetrators. That’s a lot of territory to cover along Stuart Hall and Sweetbriar to not be detected. Of course, if you are desperate for coins or anything else of value from an unlocked car, you become skilled at how to quietly slither down a sleeping street undetected.
We can speculate about who watches our habits as we come and go from our homes. Our narrow streets are rarely without traffic, and yet, I would be interested to learn from Henrico Police how they think these noiseless thieves slink through the neighborhood.
I grew up in Burlington, North Carolina, and I still have an affection for the Andy Griffith Show. From the Hollywood script perspective, Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife were two of the best law enforcement officers ever created to watch over the fictional town Mayberry.
I know Rollingwood residents know this, but as nice as our neighborhood is, we aren’t living in Mayberry anymore. I’m sorry, but none of us have any immunity from something going wrong.
And from the perspective of a grumpy, old geezer, here’s what we really need to ask ourselves—why do we want our neighborhood to be seen as an easy target?
Why do we want to be part of this conversation among thieves who have no conscience—“Hey, that Henrico neighborhood off of Patterson Avenue, people who live there always leave their cars unlocked, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made a good haul.”
Maybe, if we didn’t leave valuable items in our cars and we kept them locked, maybe we wouldn’t be seen as an easy target.
Rollingwood is a good neighborhood, a nice place to live.
If we want Rollingwood to continue as a good place to live, then we can’t take that good for granted.
We must stop being known as an easy target.
Be safe.
might be baloney 