This used to be such a sleepy, safe area. No one locked their doors at night. Or during the day either for that matter. The Mom & Pop stores left merchandise sitting on the walkway in front of their stores overnight without any worry at all that they’d be stolen or vandalized. The “big local news” would be about car accidents or which girls basketball team won the tournament. The local crime page would be about someone complaining that a cow was running loose and had gotten tangled up in a laundry line full of clean clothes.
Now it seems that “big city crime” is moving outwards and our sleepy little towns are becoming a safe haven for gangs and illegal drugs. Our area used to have its share of alcoholics and folks that were suffering from medication addictions, but now we are starting to see more people who are suffering from recreational drug addiction too.
Earlier today I was discussing this subject with my neighbor, who told me that his grandson was just released from a drug treatment program. He had been sent to a drug treatment center after his parents caught him fencing some of his mother’s nice jewelry to use the money to buy drugs. I just cannot even imagine how horrible a feeling that would be; to discover that your own child was stealing your jewelry and fencing it to buy drugs! How sad. I hope that the program got him straightened out!