THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510050150
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JANELLE LA BOUVE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 170 lines
GLORIA AND WILLIAM Stewart had always felt safe in their B Street home in South Norfolk, so much so that for 13 years, they left a basement window open for ventilation.
Gloria had grown up in the house. Her father, a brick mason, had built it.
But in August, the Stewarts' sense of security was shattered.
Thieves broke into their glassed-in porch, ripping through a simple hook-and-eye lock on a door, William Stewart said. After looting the porch, the burglars entered the house through the open basement window.
The Stewarts are not alone in their brush with crime. Their break-in was added to a list of 600 burglaries reported citywide in the first five months of 1995, the latest figures Chesapeake police have made available.
Some property crimes are on the rise in the state's fastest-growing city.
And so is anecdotal evidence that city residents feel less safe than ever before, although police officials say Chesapeake is relatively low in crime, and a 1994 city survey of 300 residents reported that 92 percent feel safe in their neighborhoods.
Police Captain Donald S. Zeagler said he believes Chesapeake is a safe place to live.
``I recommended that my family live here,'' Zeagler said.
``Naturally, as the population increases, crime increases,'' he said. ``With more people, there's more opportunity to commit crime.
``But our community is one that has the advantages of a big city with lots of shopping, but we don't have the crime other northern cities have.''
Compared with Chesapeake's dramatic population growth, burglary reports have remained relatively stable.
Chesapeake's population increased from about 97,500 in 1973 to around 168,500 in 1993, a jump of about 73 percent, according to Police Department figures.
The number of burglaries rose only about 7 percent in the same period, from nearly 1,500 to slightly more than 1,600.
Theft, however, jumped 127 percent, from about 2,200 incidents in 1973 to nearly 5,000 20 years later.
Still, experts say such statistics only partially explain why people may be more fearful than in the past.
``I think we all have a greater fear of crime, because we receive so much information about crime today compared to the past,'' said H. Taylor Greene, assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
In general, she said, ``The increase in drug-related crimes has also increased our fear.''
Taylor Greene said she could not hypothesize about why Chesapeake residents, in particular, may be afraid, because she has not analyzed Chesapeake's figures.
Dollar amounts can be tallied after a burglary, but the unease created by such an intrusion is not measurable.
``It did something to me and left me feeling a little funny,'' said Gloria Stewart. ``I want to lock everything up now.''
``We had lived here all this time and had no problems,'' she said. ``This is a historic district. The police were very cooperative. I couldn't ask for better service.''
The thieves took a heavy-duty sander and a chain saw from the enclosed porch, then headed for the basement window.
At some point during the break-in, a thief threw a gallon of insecticide at the Stewarts' three dogs.
``It didn't kill the dogs. They must have been fast enough to get away from most of it,'' William Stewart said.
The intruders also rifled through the kitchen and the rest of the house, and took a lot of jewelry.
``It was not junky stuff,'' William Stewart said. ``They took my mother's engagement and wedding rings, our daughter's college ring and a diamond ring which my wife had made for herself.''
In their bedroom, the Stewarts found old receipts strewn about. A camera and police scanner were missing.
``They didn't destroy the house, but they sure took some things we didn't want anyone to have but us,'' William Stewart said. ``I'm mad and aggravated. But I have to stay relatively calm, because my wife was really upset.''
Gloria Stewart said they now are taking precautions they never would have thought about before they got robbed.
``We are in a lot more secure home now than we were before. We lock more doors now,'' she said. ``We're replacing some of the locks and fixing the windows so they can't be opened.''
Beverly Fuller also learned about fear first hand.
Fuller had just purchased new school clothes for her son, Jamaal Holmes, on Sept. 3. The youngster was spending the night with his aunt.
Fuller went to bed and slept soundly. Sometime between 3 and 6 a.m., a burglar took advantage of an open living room window and entered the apartment.
``They tore the screen out,'' Fuller said. ``I was right in the house.''
It was morning before she realized an intruder had been in her home.
``I was going into the kitchen and noticed that the outside door was cracked. They left the door open when they went out,'' she said.
Stolen out of her son's bedroom were all his new school clothes - tennis shoes, seven pairs of pants and six or seven shirts.
``They even took his underwear and socks,'' she said.
``I'm really upset about the clothes, but I'm mad that they came in my house when I was in the house,'' she said. ``I'm glad I didn't wake up, and I'm glad my son had stayed over at my sister's house.
``I was shocked. I can't even explain how I felt just knowing they came in and I was right in here. I was afraid then and I'm really scared now.
``Now I make sure all my windows are down,'' said Fuller, who lives in South Norfolk. ``If they do that while you're in here, what will they do when you're not here? You're not even safe in your own home.''
Dennis G. Creasy, who owns an electronics business on Freeman Road in Chesapeake, had parked his 1978 Air Stream trailer inside his shop's fenced lot for three years.
One night early in August, the trailer was stolen.
``I didn't use it very often,'' Creasy said. ``Sometimes we took it on the job site. Apparently someone had plenty of opportunity to take it.
``We kept it locked. It had a dead-bolt lock plus another lock,'' he said. ``But the tires were not locked. There was no way of locking the brakes.''
The trailer was so heavy that special equipment was required to keep it from swaying while on the road. To tow it, Creasy had bought a Chevy pickup and installed a special hitch.
``They (thieves) brought in a truck,'' he said. ``It looked like they overshot and made a wide turn. You could see the trail of dirt from the tires, because the trailer had been sitting for some time.''
Creasy has heard nothing about its whereabouts. The trailer is worth about $7,500, he said.
``It never entered my mind that the trailer was vulnerable to having someone hook up to it and drive it away,'' he said. ``I am totally disappointed that you can't trust people.''
A slight oversight gave Steve Harris his brush with crime.
While attending a family reunion out of town in August, Harris forgot to close a window in a back bedroom of his Crestwood home. A thief got in and stole a lawn mower, some coins, a pager and a camera with some used film in it.
``The film in the camera was special to me,'' Harris said.
What really bothers him, though, is that someone invaded the privacy of his home.
``I can't believe the nerve of someone who would come in my home,'' Harris said. ``I had to work hard to get the home to buy the things I have and someone just comes along and takes it.''
Harris said he's not afraid about future break-ins, although he thinks it's likely he'll be victimized again.
``Oh, they'll be back,'' he said. ``I feel terrible. I'm angry. But what can you do?''
Harris had some advice for other homeowners.
``If you have items that cost a lot of money, you need to hide them some place so that they are not easy to grab,'' he said.
Most homeowners don't take the time to crime-proof their property, said Officer Vic Bailey, the city's crime prevention specialist.
People are complacent, he said.
``We think burglaries always occur at someone else's house, but not at mine,'' Bailey said.
The Police Department offers three programs to help citizens protect themselves - a home security survey, Operation Identification and McGruff House.
Residents can request a home survey, which consists of an officer visiting the home and offering tips on how to make it more secure.
``It takes less than 10 minutes,'' Bailey said.
Operation Identification is a program that encourages citizens to engrave valuables with identification numbers. The Chesapeake Crime Prevention Council has 20 electric engravers, which are available to borrow. Citizens mark their own property and keep their own records.
McGruff House is a program that identifies safe houses in neighborhoods where children can go if they have a problem or are threatened.
But, Bailey said, old-fashioned measures work, too.
``The No. 1 and No. 2 deterrents to crime are lights and a dog,'' he said. MEMO: For more information about crime prevention, call Officer Vic Bailey at
543-0142.
by CNB