Moved Due To Criminal Element - Anyone Else?

[Abraham]

We moved out of the Clear Lake neighborhood we'd lived in for 24 years due in part to the sudden influx of criminals types i.e. certain evacuees. Crime in our sub-division had spiked.

When a large percentage of gang banger/thug looking types start appearing regularly, on foot and in cars in your neighborhood, it's time to move.

I feel sorry for those who for whatever reason can't move and have to continue live in declining neighborhoods.

We started having all sorts of various incidents. Among the various incidents, I called the cops when a very suspicious guy in a car kept hanging around the cul-de-sac two houses down from me. This wasn't a first. However, when the cops checked out this suspect HE was a cop on stakeout. What does that say about your neighborhood?

Ugh. We put our house up for sale and thankfully sold it right away.

We now live way the heck and gone out in the country and absolutely love it. We're now in a demographic such that we receive no telemarketing phone calls, driveway littering so-called free newspapers or in person sales types trying to sell aluminum siding or whatever.

Hallelujah!

Are we the only ones here that fit in this category of moving or have any of you done the same?

[attila79]

It seems like gang activity is going up again.

[seamusTX]

I'm not going to win a popularity contest by saying this, but here goes ...

Back in the 1960s, when middle-class people were moving out of Chicago in droves, one of my parents' friends said, "You can move, but don't bother unpacking." He was right. Twenty years later, the suburbs had the same problems as the city. A lot of it was the fault of the teenage grandkids of people who moved there to get away from it all.

If you go way out in an unincorporated county, you start to run into meth cookers and other shady characters. The crime rate just seems lower because the population density is less.

- Jim

[aardwolf]

I'm not going to win a popularity contest by saying this, but here goes ...

Back in the 1960s, when middle-class people were moving out of Chicago in droves, one of my parents' friends said, "You can move, but don't bother unpacking." He was right. Twenty years later, the suburbs had the same problems as the city.

I moved 4 times in less than 10 years. 20 years is plenty long enough to be worth unpacking.

When it becomes too much of a hassle to shoot the bad guys, it's time to move.

[Turfspanker]

She said you can smell it plain as day, but the cops don't do anything. She's called before, but they don't care.
.

That sounds really fishy.
Turning a blind eye usually means there is money involved.
I would encourage her to go beyond the local police if she's not getting support.

[seamusTX]

I would encourage her to go beyond the local police if she's not getting support.

Ya gotta be real careful with that. Someone I know had drug thugs living near her and complained to the police about them. Shortly after, one of her horses was shot, and the nefarious activity didn't stop.

- Jim

[nedmoore]

We are in the same situation as you Abraham.. Currently living in Spring, off of 1960. Going to wait a couple of more years before we move though.

[nitrogen]

my wife and I left Northern California due to the rising crime rate, and the inability to defend ourselves. That was a major reason we ended up here.

[Venus Pax]

When I was in school, my mother chose to move us out of Port Arthur because of the rising crime. We moved to a smaller town, and bought a house on a street with three other houses on it, and we never had any trouble.

Since then, I have preferred living in the country or smaller communities. The police are further away, and you do have to provide your own security, but it's so much easier to do in the country.

For example:
1. A person walking through a yard in the city/suburb would be commonplace. In the country, it's cause for question.

2. You don't get many knocks at the door in the country, especially when your neighbors have large red-neck-dogs that run everyone off.

3. Families living in the country are not convenient for door-to-door religious groups and salespeople.

4. With a lower population, you tend to know your neighbors. Neighborhood watch, although it isn't referred to as such, is rather vigilant. Most of my Crosby neighbors were elderly, and they didn't hesitate to let me know about that green Honda that drover 'round back while I was at work. (It was my mother; she's usually harmless.)

5. People in the country have no problem firing guns in their back yards. That's not a comforting sound if you're up to devilment. Also, your neighbors don't tend to get nervous if they walk over and notice that you have a gun on your hip.


We're in an apartment now, and I can't wait to move back to the country.

[legend]

I used to live in an apartment on the west side of town. I moved down to Friendswood with a roommate for awhile. It wasn't too bad. Then my wife and I got married, and decided to move back to my old apartment complex, post Katrina. It had gotten really bad. When we were moving in, my next door neighbor came outside drunk and screaming at the guys moving my stuff in because they laid a piece of a blanket on his 1989 ford thunderbird (The moving guy put the blanket there to protect the car from the door of the moving truck). My wife was constantly scared in that apartment complex...

Our only saving grace was two 100+ lb dogs (german shepherd and a black lab) who were INCREDIBLY protective, and very loud. We stayed there 3 months before breaking our lease and buying a house pretty far away from town (Fairfield, 290 and Mason area).

In Friendswood someone decided to kick our back door in. Then they met the German Shepherd. When I came home, the door was shut and pulled shut from the outside, the door lock and knob were on the ground, and there were clawmarks on the inside of the door. God I wish I could have seen their face!!

[45 4 life]

The wife and I moved back to Irving, into the same neighbor hood we had left 11 years earlier. Needless to say the old place had changed. The night after we had unloaded the truck and placed everything into the house someone broke in. Went through every box in the place has we had not even started unpacking yet. All of this with my mom and stepdad right outside in a travel trailer.

I called the Irving police and was informed that the gang activity had gotten so bad in that section of town this sort of thing had become a common occurence. He said they knew who the gang members were but just could not catch them.

I explained to this officer that since he knew the members that he should tell them this for me. I had just remodeled the home prior to moving the family down and that I was going to have to live there for awhile, but was going to put the house on the market. Then I said you tell them that I have worked in law enforcement, although my weapons were not there when they broke in they will surely be here with me now, and that I know how, and have shot individuals in the past. I was not the person they wanted to mess with.

I asked the officer later if he had delivered the message and he assured me that he had, and that he and some of his buddies actually kept an eye on us for awhile has he was concerned the local gang would take it as a challenge and come after me or the family.

I actually lived there for two years with no incidents within 3 houses of my house. The person we sold to did not last 4 months.

We moved into a nicer part of town which is still not where we want to be. When the wife is ready to quit work I have been planning with friends to buy property that is joined and set up our homes in order to help watch one anothers backs. I really hate to have to make plans like that but what else is there to do. In the past 5 years we have had a turnover with many homeowners in our area. The folks moving in do not seem to get outdoors much. We do not really know our neighbors anymore.

[nuparadigm]

When my employment situation and finances permit, Wife Unit and myself plan to move somewhere between El Campo and Edna.

[casingpoint]

Clear Lake is not that far from Pasadena. Shotgun territory.

[bps3040]

I have been thinking about moving. Lived here since 91, but a Chinese family moved in next door....the 2 sons are drug dealers and all around scumbags. They have been busted for B&E and selling pot......and now there is 3 families living in the house...have just about had enough.