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6 Spring/Summer 2018 Crime Prevention Tips, Information, and Resources from Sgt. Larry Osterman Vacation Checks: One of the Crime Prevention Program services is to offer vacation checks on your home when you are away for any length of time. This is for citizens where the Washington County Sheriff’s Office is the local law enforcement agency. If you live in a city that has a local police agency, you should contact them for this service. Visit: https://www.co.washington.mn.us/912/Vacation- Home-Checks for more information and to fill out a request form. Neighborhood Watch Program: Neighborhood Watch (NW) is an association of neighbors who contribute to the safety and security of their neighborhood by working together with the Washing- ton County Sheriff’s Office. Together, the Sheriff’s Office and the neighborhood volunteers work to implement the principles of crime deterrence and detection while encouraging the active reporting of crimes and suspicious activity. The strength of Neighborhood Watch is the communication and dedi- cation of the watch group members. If you are interested in forming a neighborhood watch group or registering your current group please complete call our non-emergency number 651-439-9381. Mail and Package Theft: Please don’t place mail in your mailbox to be picked up by the postal staff! The red flag is supposed to indicate mail to be picked up by postal carriers, however, it has become a signal for thieves. Planning for a package delivery? Have it delivered to you at work, or ask a neighbor that might be home during the day and have your package delivered to him or her. Having packages delivered to your home, when youre not there, creates great opportunity for thieves. Reporting suspicious bevaior: See a strange vehicle or person in your neighborhood? Please call the Sheriff’s Office to report what you saw! We will gladly check into the matter and be proactive rather than taking reports of thefts or worse after they happen. Scams: I assure you, your long lost cousin or friend/relative is not in jail in some foreign county, and we are even more certain that you giving a person your credit card/banking information will not help them. It will most likely empty your savings and/or max out your credit card. It will also leave you with little or no recourse as these cases are very hard to track. If you get a call like this, simply tell them that you’re calling the Sheriff to check on this and they can call you back tomorrow. I’m betting they won’t call back, but be sure to call us so we can look into the scam. Even if they do call back, never give out your financial information! More question or do you just want to meet the Lake Elmo Deputies? Contact myself, Sgt. Larry Osterman, at 651-747-3928 or larry.osterman@co.washington.mn.us. I do work a flex schedule, so it may take a day or two for me to return your call, but I certainly will try to reply within a day.