Crime Trends in Our Neighborhood

Hey, Mamas (and Papas, if you're out there, too),

I need some perspective and advice on some current trends in our relatively quiet neighborhood. This is long...sorry.

We live in a diverse community in a more suburban section of a large city. I love our neighborhood. We have mature trees, kind neighbors, easy access to just about anything... We love our home. It's humble, but has plenty of character. We have a big back yard for our giant dog, and we are within walking distance of an excellent bike/walking path.

Over the past couple of years, we've seen some petty/small scale crime in the area:
*Items disappearing from open and unattended garages.
*My DH caught a guy in our garage, going through his tools last summer.
*A few houses have been burglarized when no one was home during the day. (No one was hurt, and I think they were there for electronics, mostly.)

To me, these are pretty common problems in any setting- nothing that would make me worry about our safety. We have a neighborhood crime watch, and we get an e-mail if something as small as a suspicious vehicle is spotted in the area. However, since last summer, it seems things have been escalating. In the fall, a police officer who lives a couple of blocks over caught several people driving slowly through the neighborhood, going door-to-door, trying to get in houses. It turns out, they all had warrants for gang-related activity and were all arrested.

ETA: I left out another event. In October or November, two girls were robbed by guys carrying shotguns on the south side of our neighborhood. They were forced into a back bedroom while the house was robbed. This was the first known armed robbery in recent years. (The women were not harmed, physically.)

Last Sunday morning (11 a.m.), two men were murdered at home about 3 blocks from our house. It turns out, the victims and the assailant were all members of the Latin Kings street gang. We didn't hear anything from the neighborhood watch about it. I had to hear about it on the Monday morning news.

That same Monday morning (6:45), a car was seen driving suspiciously and pulled into our elderly neighbor's driveway (across the street from our house). Another neighbor, leaving for work, spotted the car and pulled up to the mail box. The suspicious vehicle quickly backed out of the driveway and took off. It turns out, the car was stolen. Who knows what they were going to do??

I'm starting to freak out a little- okay a lot. My DH says that most of the crimes are probably due to people the victims know (even the burglaries). While it's true that we have no gang affiliation, I can't help but feel threatened in what used to be a safe, quiet neighborhood.

Here's where I need help. Has anyone else experienced this kind of thing in their own neighborhoods? If so, were they isolated incidents, or were they a sign of escalating crime?

I'm ready to put our house on the market and move. We won't get nearly what my DH paid for the home in 2005, but we are not underwater on our mortgage. That's if we can even sell the house in this market. Our original plan was to stay put a couple more years (until DC #2 is on the way, hopefully). Then, we were hoping the market would be better, and we could benefit from the added equity in the home.

I've changed my mind about staying put, but DH is unwilling to budge. I'm afraid we're going to have to be victims, personally, before he will consider moving. Then, it's too late.

Am I overreacting? Would you be anxious for your family's safety, too? What would you do if you couldn't move elsewhere? How do you protect your family?