[Music] hello and welcome to this edition of on the beat I'm detective Steve Barry the Mesa Police Department and in this edition of on thebeat we're going to focus on senior safety and our back to school safety first we have with us today Karen Stena of the Mesa Police Department crime prevention program hi Karen how are you doing today good thanks Steve let's talk about some of our safety issues with regards to seniors in our community have we been noticing any particular Trends or crime activity that spe specifically targeting our seniors we have uh recently we've had several in fact in also in some of the surrounding communities uh where we've had individuals approach the homes of seniors and uh a couple of different stories that they're telling to try to get in the home is they ask if the car that's parked in the parking uh in the driveway is for sale or they say they're new to the neighborhood and they need to use their phone or any number of stories that they use to try to get in the home so these are individuals that are just uh maybe going through neighborhoods and looking for a home that appears to maybe there's a senior at home and then they're using this uh this plan or guise amongst them uh to try and gain access to the home right right and once they're in the home what they're try to do is uh one of the individuals there's usually more than one they will distract track the homeowner in one part of the house while their accomplices go into usually the bedrooms and and go through looking for jewelry and small items cash and they're in and out in a matter of minutes and often times the homeowner isn't even aware that they're being burglarized sure very very troubling situation certainly when you've got people that are coming into the home like that rather brazenly now if one of our seniors or anyone else in the community for that matter would uh find them themselves in this type of situation what type of tips could we give them uh to perhaps prevent them from becoming a victim well one of the things we we often tell our seniors is do not let strangers into the home bottom line it's great if they have a security door because then they can open up their main door to see who it is if it's somebody that says that they're with UPS or FedEx or something ask for identification we've had people posing a city of Mesa employees ask for identification the bottom line is before you let a stranger into your home verify their identity I I don't care what the story they're telling you it could be very heartbreaking it could be very compelling but that's how they get to the hearts of these seniors so basically don't let strangers into your home and certainly that that's great advice for not only again not only for our seniors but for anyone else in the community and certainly I I would suggest that if it ever does become uh that seric of a question um contact the police department and uh we'll send out an officer and have that that person checked out yes yeah and it's good for them to uh you know if they do see a stranger and they're trying to get in the home if they can get us a license plate description of the vehicle kind of be aware that maybe something these people are riding through the neighborhood as you said to try to get us some information sure all those things would definitely be a great help now I know one of the other trends that we've seen lately um and it's kind of been ongoing is uh some of the overseas type scams where individuals I guess are emailing or calling uh some of our seniors trying to get money that way right I've had several calls actually in the last few months uh particularly people sending money to Jamaica or receiving calls from Jamaica but it can happen in any any country Canada England you know Spain Nigeria we've had it from several different countries but basically the premise is the same they're calling to tell the folks that they've won a prize but before they get their prize they have to send some money to pay for fees or taxes or custom fees whatever you know they come up with administrative fees and so in order to get the prize they have to pay something first and typically what happens they'll send money they won't get the prize the caller will call back tell them they need to send more money and they'll just keep calling and sometimes five six times a day wow that's certainly unfortunate and I guess the the main information of that is certainly if you are winning a prize uh for most reputable places where you would ever win something they're certainly not going to ask you to send send them uh a fairly large sum of money in order to collect your prize right well the rule is NE you never have to pay a fee you know sometimes it'll be as small as $111 $20 but when a con artist sends out thousands of letters and they get $111 from each person you know that's a pretty good day work for them so our bottom line is never pay a fee if you won a prize in order to claim that prize and the other take on the the scam the same type of scam if they don't get the phone call or email is they'll receive a check in the mail and the check maybe for $4 or $5,000 is supposed to be a portion of their winnings and what they're asked to do is take the check to the bank and then wire a portion of that money if they get a check for 4,000 maybe they're told to wire back 1,500 to pay for these same fees they do that because the banks very difficult to tell whether these checks are legitimate and what they do is they wire the money out and then the check balances a few weeks later and and that one is that scam actually has been on the rise over the last couple of years and that's one of the things that we've looked out for w you know these are certainly a couple of great uh tidbits of information for our our seniors and again the the whole Community to look out for um we certainly at the police department and with the folks at crime prevention uh helping us along the way do everything we can uh to keep everyone in our community safe and away from these type of scams so this is has been some fabulous information good well I thank you for the opportunity and and you know I just received a call this morning about uh a son or daughter that is worried about their parent sending money to Jamaica so it's it's out there and it's happening more than we know because it's very much under reported well that's great uh thank you again uh we're going to take a break for just a second here and when we come back we're going to have Al Moore from the Mesa Public School System uh giving us some tips for back to school safety and safety throughout the year for our school kids hello and welcome back now I'm joined by Al Moore who is the director of School Safety and Security for the Mesa Public School System welcome Al thank you what can you tell us about uh some of the school security issues that are going on now that we're coming back into the school session well one thing I'd like to say is the uh that safety is a top priority at the Meson Public Schools we've actually realigned the Beats of our district security officers to allow more Patrol for our schools during the dayshift hours uh the biggest problem that always seems to arise every year is The Stranger contacts that the kids have uh as they walk to and from school uh and the best advice I can give to parents and to students is never walk alone uh in all my years of investigating these types of crimes I I don't know that we've ever had cases where suspects have approached two or more people now I'm sure that has happen but the likelihood that they're going to approach one is very high compared to then when they're you're walking with a group and and that goes for any age and uh really any sex we have boys and girls that are victims to these types of contacts we like to call them and and I think that's a great point that you bring up first which is the the Safety and Security of being in numbers um obviously we at the police department work hand inand with the Mesa School security officers um to try and watch out for these things but there's uh there's a lot of schools out there and a lot of kids and of course it's uh difficult for us to be everywhere and providing information like this you know on uh how to stay together and watch out for these things is definitely Paramount now if a child does find himself in this type of situation um someone tries to contact them inappropriately uh perhaps on their way to school uh we always uh of course teach our kids to run to a safe location um and of course contact the school administrators and police department as quickly as possible but what else can they look out for if they are able to provide some additional information as they're going to a safe place well the best thing to do is when they are walking to keep a a close eye on your surroundings if you're walking around you know look for somebody else that's walking alone if there's an adult walking towards them uh then you know my advice would be to speed up or or even run uh if a car is slowing down uh be aware of cars that are coming up behind you uh things like that if you're walking up to a car and the door is open you know don't pass that car uh I think the biggest thing is just being aware of your surroundings which would then keep you safe and I think you just hit it right on the head there it's all about being aware we certainly don't want to scare our children or anyone else in the community but we do want them to be aware that unfortunately on occasion these situations do arise and by being aware and just paying attention uh we can avoid a lot of these situations that uh we could potentially get into with the children uh what other situations do we have going on in school I know nowadays we've got uh with the Advent of the internet and cell phones and a lot of other things like that uh we've had a few incidents where there's been some inappropriate type texting and things like that going on at school and uh some of that can be even criminal yes it can and it is concerning when uh kids are starting to text and every phone you buy nowadays has a camera on it and it's real convenient to take a picture and send a picture to your friends and and that's okay unless it's an inappropriate picture and I think what people need to realize that a lot of these inappropriate pictures could be criminal and those are felony charges if they uh are found out and investigated uh so it's very important that people understand that what might be innocent between you and your boyfriend next week when you and your boyfriend break up and then all of a sudden those pictures start going to all the other friends it's no longer fun and that's when it usually comes out and then an investigation begins and we work hand inand with the Mesa Police Department and and I was going to say you know I've seen those investigations have they come through and uh they can be quite damaging and and embarrassing uh for the children or the individuals the teenagers involved in this and uh so using a little bit of Common Sense can certainly go a long ways um and that goes not only for with the phones and the texting and the possible inappropriate messages but again tying this back to back to school things the kids love to get on the computers and they've all got their uh Facebook type Pages or the social networking Pages um and people need to understand that's the worldwide web and people will be able to get in there and have access to it absolutely and the other thing I would like to point out is you know when you're on the web and you're on Facebook or Myspace you know don't give out your personal information don't give out your phone numbers and your addresses uh or even your age uh because all those things are going to be used by Predators who are on those pages looking for victims and certainly so a lot of times I I've seen where the children will uh put information on there about their schools and all their different activities and even though they're they're trying in some instances to uh be very discreet they don't realize that the little tidbits of information that they put out there can very quickly lead a predator type person back to the school that they go to the neighborhood and and the routes that they take so all of these all of these things combined are are just things again we want to make people aware of we don't want to create fear we just want the parents and the students to think about some of these things um have good communication and certainly if something does arise uh contact the school administration and the security staff and uh or the M of police department and we'll certainly work together uh to ensure that our children have a very uh safe and happy school year and we do work hand inand with the Mesa Police Department with the school resource officers and the supervisors and the supervisors at the center against Family Violence and we have a great working relationship it it it's always worked very well Alan I'd like to thank you for coming in the studio this month and joining us here uh the information that you provided us will go a long way towards our kids having a safe and happy school year well thanks for having me and we'd like to thank you for joining us for this edition of on the beat for additional information on any of the topics that we've covered today feel free to log on to our [Music] website