It’s no secret that Woodbury is a great place to live, with good schools, beautiful parks and great neighbors that make it feel like the best of a big city and a small town. But even the safest communities face public safety issues that can threaten the well-being of its residents. The good news is that while crimes and accidents aren’t completely unavoidable, there are steps everyone can take to prevent falling victim to some of the most common ones. City of Woodbury Public Safety Department experts offer these useful tips.
1. Distracted Driving
Recently, one of the hottest topics in Woodbury has been the issue of distracted driving, especially concern about texting while driving. Though cell phone usage while driving is relatively new, police sergeant Scott Melander says that “old school distractions” are just as prevalent, and just as dangerous.
“I see people at intersections looking at a book or a map or their phone, blocking traffic,” Melander says. “You can’t do two things with full concentration, and we’ve found that most crashes involve some form of distraction.”
While it’s not illegal to talk and drive (unless you’re under 18), using your phone to text, email or access Facebook is a moving violation that can result in a citation with a fine and could affect your insurance rates. Melander says his goal is not to write tickets but to educate people on the risk posed to them and their fellow drivers by distracted driving.
He says if you see someone driving dangerously, call in with their license plate number and stay with them, getting ahead of them in traffic; you don’t want a distracted driver behind you.
Melander understands the urge to reach for your phone when it makes a sound, but it’s not worth risking your life—or someone else’s—to check it. “Put your phone somewhere where you can’t reach it when it dings, or put it on silent so you can’t hear it when you’re driving,” he says. “Use driving to enjoy some down time and stop worrying about everything in that phone. It’ll be a safer place for all of us.”
2. Bonfire Safety
Some safety issues are more seasonal in nature, and fall often brings an uptick in backyard bonfires. Recreational fires—consisting of 3-feet-by-3-feet logs of clean, dry wood—don’t require a permit, but must be 15 feet away from other combustible materials, like your home or wooden fence.
Once the fire is extinguished, dispose of the ashes by wetting them down and letting them cool for 48 hours in a metal receptacle outside of your home before putting them in with regular garbage for collection. “Coals can stay warm for a couple of days, and if you put hot ones in a plastic dumpster or in the trash, they can get stirred up and that’s how houses get burned down,” says Fire Commander John Wallgren. He also suggests keeping a bucket of water or hose next to your firepit. “It’s not mandatory, but it’s the safest way to have a campfire,” he says.
3. Protecting Your Home
Vigilance and some key preventative measures are important for deterring other types of crime, such as home invasions. Though not particularly common in Woodbury, Community Service Officer Jordan Hopwood advises that residents going away on vacation or spending their winters in warmer climates make sure to avoid letting their home appear vacant.
Stop your mail and newspaper deliveries, and have a trusted neighbor pick up packages. Arrange to have your driveway and walkways shoveled in the winter and your lawn tended to if you’re away in the summer. He also suggests investing in a home security system and putting the company’s sign in your front yard, as well as using motion-sensor lights on a timer to make it appear as if the house is occupied. “If you display that the house is vacant, you’re making yourself an easy target,” Hopwood says. If you return home after being away and notice any doors or windows ajar, don’t touch anything and call police immediately. “It’s much easier to get DNA or fingerprints if the scene is left uncontaminated,” he notes.
4. Phone/Email Scams
Your phone can also be a source of criminal activity in the form of phone and email scams. “Often, somebody gets a call that their grandson or nephew is in jail and they need a money order sent somewhere,” says Woodbury Police Detective Lynn Lund. Once the concerned family member wires the money, it is typically picked up by the scammer within a few hours, so it’s often difficult to get victims their money back unless they realize they’ve been scammed and report it quickly. “The biggest thing is time,” Lund says. “Ideally, within a few hours or days.”
If someone calls or emails you asking for money, she suggests hanging up or taking down their contact information and saying you’ll call them back, then consulting with law enforcement or simply search the caller’s name and number online. If something seems fishy, it probably is.
“Anytime anybody asks you for money, dig into it,” Lund says, noting that she’s seen victims lose thousands of dollars to scammers posing as IRS agents and even a woman who transferred the down payment for a house into a fraudulent account she thought was set up by her mortgage broker.
