Archive for October, 2010

Halloween is again upon us.

It’s the time of year when little kids dress up like princesses and pirates while the older kids dress up in more theme-oriented costumes as Lindsay Lohan or Quagmire from “Family Guy.“ (Whatever floats the boat, right?)

Every year we look at Halloween safety, and every year dole out the same advice: be a parent.

I get comments every year saying we shouldn’t give out the same advice each and every year, that they know all the safety tips for kids. They want something new — like there’s some new strain of Halloween risks out there we should be aware of.

The reason we repeat what you probably already know is because there are a lot of parents out there who don’t do the basics and send the kids out there without a clue of what those basics are. That’s why God gave us Family and Children Services.

Believe it or not, some kids get sent out by parents who toss them a bag and say, “See you at 10.” My hope is that I’ll hit the basics …

Continue reading Tips for a safe night of trick-or-treating »

Time off.

Detective Sandy and I made the annual trek to the county fair. We do this every year so I can count all the new rides that make me sick. So far, the only thing I can ride without nausea is the 82-year-old tortoise at the animal barn.

Actually, I like the Pirate Ship ride and I love roller coasters, but I’m not a person who tolerates the “spinning” class of rides very well. I can go forward as fast as you want — but then backwards? Puke-O-Rama.

One of the rides I like at the fair is the chair lift that (slowly) takes you from one end of the fairgrounds to the other. There’s no better place to mullet-watch. Why they don’t have a mullet contest at the Forsyth County Fair I’ll never know! It’s the perfect storm for mullets.

I actually found the winner just after we got there. It was spiked on top with bleached-blond hair about a foot and a half long. I took a photo with my phone but I think he had powers because the photo would not take! His mullet was so …

Continue reading Off-duty: If life really was a carnival, we’d all be mullet-wearing carneys eating funnel cakes »

Criminal activity is dynamic. I say that because I like to say “dynamic.” But it’s also because criminal activity is, well, dynamic.

Dynamic in this case means constantly changing, which is a different way of saying “things change a lot.”

Burglary is the “entering the dwelling of another…” Dwelling can be your home or storage shed. The act creates little change, but the method is something that keeps us all employed here. We have analysts who crunch numbers and look for patterns, probability of patterns and where and when a similar pattern or even single incidents will occur.

For every pattern, series or trend, there seems to be an “X” factor, which to me can go either way. If you’re a burglar and — by the way, when someone breaks into your home, you’ve been burglarized, not robbed. Robbed is when someone pulls a gun so they can take your cell phone. (It’s amazing how we got to the top of the food chain.)

OK, back to the “X” factor and burglars. …

Continue reading Burglars count on you to think nothing’s wrong »