Sacramento, CA

Is it just me or is Roseville full of the most random crimminals ever? First there was the Golf-Ball Thief earlier this year, and now we have little old ladies robbing banks. Normally, I’m as conservative and hard ass as they come, but this just screams to the world that our elderly community isn’t being as well-cared for as it should be. I mean really how many little old ladies do you know that rob banks?

When I saw her picture it made me think of my own grandmother who doesn’t yet qualify for her social security benefits because she’s only sixty-four. She also very unhealthy and has to take a plethora of medications just to avoid having more strokes. Due to these stroeks, she is blind in one eye and colorblind in the other. However, there aren’t many options to help her out with the medications that she needs just to live. One of her pills is $100 for just one pill!! She is so poor that she and her husband can’t even buy each other Christmas gifts this year. They’re basically lucky to just scrape by enough to keep on living.

You just know that the poor woman who robbed that bank did it because she is in a similar situation. Witneses even said that she was shaking and it looked like she was debating whether to do it or not. In my opinion, she doesn’t sound at all like a career criminal. It sounds like she is just a desperate woman in a desperate situation. However, if you’re enough of a scrooge to give her up, police are asking that “Anyone with information about the robbery can call the FBI in Sacramento at (916) 481-9110, the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department at (916) 874-5115, Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP, or the Roseville Police Department at (916) 774-5000.” Frankly, I hope she gets away with it…

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Today (as I’m sure you are all aware) is Black Friday, otherwise known as the year’s biggest catastrophe for shopper’s wallets and a giant salve for merchants everywhere. Fortunately, I had to work at my real world job today so *alas* there shall be no shopping for me. However, if you’re not like Candy Hollowell over at Tulsa, OK or myself then I’m sure you’re already out and about instead of reading this. However, when you get back it’s still something you should know about as it’s likely to continue through the holiday season.

Anyway, this morning I heard on KCRA that Arden Fair Mall has greatly improved upon its security system. They have employed more security guards and, more importantly, also done some major technological overhauls to the previously existing system. The single biggest improvement is an increase from 19 security cameras to 128. Furthermore, many of these new cameras can rotate and zoom in close enough to read specific license plates. I am so exstatic about this taht it’s really not even funny! FINALLY they are doing something to deter thiefs who target holiday shoppers!!! All I can say is taht it’s about time!

Regardless of the improvements made, I would still advise you to be cautious when shopping at any big mall this season. The local paper where my parents live published some great tips that I thought I’d pass along.

1) Ladies, don’t carry around a big bulky purse. They are attractive to purse-snatchers as they know they can hold all sorts of goodies. Instead, just bring along a small handbag or carry a couple of cards in your pcket instead. Also, if you are carrying a purse be sure to wear it with the strap diagonally across your chest. It makes it more difficult to grab.

2)NEVER leave merchandise in the front seats of your car where people can see them. This is just asking for trouble. Instead, make sure that you put them in your trunk so that they won’t become a homing beacon fro crooks. Also, (and I’d never heard this before!) it’s better if you are willing to park your car somewhere else when you drop off a load of purchases. In theory, this deters anyone who is staking out your vehicle because they wil assume that you are leaving the mall and returning home.

3)Do not park far away from the mall doors if you will be out late at night. If you have to park in these areas, check periodically to see if you can move your car before it gets dark outside.

4)Many malls have secuirty guards who will walk you to your car if you are out alone after dark. Take advantage of them!

Feel free to add more if you know of any so we can pass them around and insure that everyone has a safe and happy shopping season!

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I know I haven’t written much of anything since Veterans Day, but it’s been one heck of a week. A friend of a friend was murdered in Dixon and I’ve been doing a lot of praying over that lately. She has two young sons who are going to be without their mother for the first time this Christmas and it’s really just too horrible to imagine. Anyway, if you could please remember them in your prayers this week–and especially today–that would be so very thoughtful and wonderful. I would be very thankful for the added prayers that her boys get to see justice served quickly and efficiently.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving and feel free to add to my Thanksgiving prayer if you feel so inclined!

Dear God,

Thank You for giving humanity the idea of family. To know that there are those who will love you unconditionally is the most liberating thought that any of us can ever have. Thank You specifically for my family. We may not always get along–and we are certainly far from conventional–but there is no family in the world whose members love each other more. It may take a crisis for us to realize this, but we are as fiercely protective of one another as You could ever possibly have hoped for. On that note, thank You for also giivng us those who do not have family and the knowledge of families who aren’t as close. For it is these people whose desperation reminds us of just how blessed You have made the Springer clan in giving us one another.

Thank You also for the incredible friendships that You have allowed me to forge. More importantly, thank You for showing me that it doesn’t matter how many you have so long as you have one or two who have somehow crossed the line and become family. Some days I don’t think I would surrive if it weren’t for their support and love. Above these, thank You for those friendships which are not as solid. Whether they are new friends or merely those who have somehow become out of touch, these are the people who remind me to keep trying. They constantly illustrate that good things come to those who are willing to wait–yet, also, to those who refuse to wait forever.

Thank You for wonderful meal that my mother will be slaving over all day and that my father worked so hard to provide for us. There is no greater gift than a home cooked meal prepared in love. This is especially the case for one such as this which will be composed without so much as a thought to all of the stress and anxiety that holidays so often inadvertantly bring about. Thank You also for all of the million sof people who will not be enjoying such a magnificent feast this Thanksgiving. Their suffering is never far from mind during the holidays. Nothing more fully teaches the value of a meal than the plight of those who go without it. Furthermore, nothing else could be as poignant a reminder as this comparison to jolt us into the act of giving that You would have us all aspire to.

Thank You also for giving me the gift of an incredible church family. In particular, thank You for giving me such powerful role models as Shirley and Miss Bea. Their constant effort to bring the gift of Christ to those who do not know Him is beauitfully motivational. I can only hope to someday be able to spread the message of Your love as far and effectively as they have.

More than any of these though, I thank You for the gift of tragedy. Though I may not always understand Your reasons I do always come to appreciate the lessons that I gain from them. Though it is hard to admit sometimes there is no greater gift than the death of someone that we know and love. It sounds heinous even typing that, but it is true nonetheless. Nothing else in the world could possibly shout more clearly “LIVE, LIVE, LIVE!!!” So often in life we get too caught up in doing the things that keep us alive that we forget to truly live. However, when someone dies, the urgency is brought back and we realize that there are no guarantees for tomorrow, and that instead we must sieze each moment and cherish it as though it could be our last. To me, there is no greater way to honr the life AND death of a loved one than to allow it to breathe new life into you once more.

Always Yours with love,

Jenny

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and may God bless you and yours today and always!

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A woman was waiting for the bus Monday morning on the corner of San Juan and Truxel Road when she was approached by a teenager with an infant. The girl reportedly asked the woman if she could hold the child while she prepared a bottle for him. When the woman agreed and took the baby, the teenager took off running. Police took the child to UC Davis Medical Center and he is supposedly in good health. They are currently looking for the mother. The Sacramento Bee describes her as “white, 5-foot-3, with a small build and strawberry blonde hair.” Eye witnesses say she looks to be about 16 years old. Anyone with information pertaining to her whereabouts or identity is urged to come forward to the police at 916-443-HELP. Charges may be brought against her, but at the moment they are only looking to talk to her.

It’s terrible that this type of thing is still happening in California. After all, the state legally allows mothers to drop unwanted children off at any hospital within three days of the child’s birth with no questions asked. We obviously need to further educate our youth on teen pregnancy and the options that are available to them since–hopefully–this girl didn’t know that this option was available to her…

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Yesterday, the Elk Grove police department broke up yet another marijuana network in what is supposed to be the perfect suburban family neighborhood. They raided over twenty homes and confiscated 6100 mairjuana plants, 10 cars, and $200,000 in cash. They estimate that the plants could be capable of producing $24 million dollars worth of marijuana. In addition to the high qauntity of production, police also expressed concern that the people growing the plants are becoming more educated and finding crafty ways to elude detection. For instance, most of the homes raided were the perfect image of suburban bliss. They had well-manicured lawns and furnished living rooms, appearing for all intents and purposes to be the perfect neighbors.

I found this to be extremely sickening and disturbing. People move to suburban areas in order to give their families a better life. They seek to get away from the high crime rates of larger cities and now here it is at their doors–a veritable wolf in sheep’s clothing. Finding out that your neighborhood is full of drug dealers is sure fire way to shred even the hope for safety and security. The worst part though is that it allows them to become commonplace and almost even acceptable in the eyes of the public. The message that it is normal and alright for dealers to reside alongside families also equates to the message that perhaps doing drugs really isn’t all that bad. In particular, it sends mixed messages to our children–ultimately effecting whether or not they will choose to use drugs in their own lives. Frankly, this is the last thing that they need when there are already enough confusing messages coming from various research labs–such as UC San Diego–which argue that marijuana does not harm brain cells. Some experiments are even geared towards “proving” that marijuana actually HELPS GROW NEW BRAIN CELLS!!!

They’ve obviously never met any of the plethora of potheads I encountered while attending the University of the Pacific in Stockton. My friend’s college boyfriend smoked so much weed that to this day he cannot function in society. He can’t hold an intelligent conversation–or any conversation that requires more than a yes or no answer for that matter. He can’t hold down a job because he either fails the drug tests or screws up at work because he’s too high to take anything seriously. He’s only 25 and he already has a slew of drug charges and convictions. He just recently violated parole and is likely on his way back to prison and all he can say do is giggle and say, “I sure showed The Man.” Sadly, he isn’t the exception to the rule either. I have also known a number of people who were willing to engage in prostitution in order to earn money to buy marijuana.

I don’t know, maybe I’m just so opposed to it because I’ve never tried it. (At least that’s what people constantly try to convince me of.) I admittedly can’t even begin to fathom the attraction of smoking away your intelligence and acting like an idiot. However, that doesn’t make it any less sad that when you search for marijuana images online all you find are jokes and rainbow covered pot leaves declaring that it should be legalized. Perhaps they’re right on that count though. At least then it could be regulated and taken out of the neighborhoods where our children go to school and play. It would certainly eliminate the need to arrest 14 people while little kids are getting off the school bus across the street and having their innocence and naiveté permanently ripped from them. What do you think?…

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Since I know there are very few people in Sacramento who subsrcibe to the TriValley Herald, I thought I’d share a story with you that I read in there today. Stefani Ruland of Carmichael was arrested in January for identity theft. Prosecutors in Pleasanton have recently added additional counts bringing the grand total to seventeen felony charges. She is being charged with eleven counts of identity theft, three counts of possession of stolen property, and three counts of burglary. At the time of her arrest, officers found a large quantity of merchandise from Nordstrom at Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton that had been purchased using someone else’s credit card. She was also in possession of twenty fake driver’s licenses with her photograph on them and five authentic licenses that she had not yet altered.

The most astonishing part to me though is that she was on probation at the time of her arrest. What was she convicted of you ask? Well, that would be none other than…IDENTITY THEFT CRIMES!!! It made me so angry to read that. It brings me back to all of the tirades I’ve been on lately about our criminal justice system. I really don’t want to start that again though–since it’s likely to sound like a broken record anyway. Suffice to say that something needs to be done because this is crystal clear evidence that slapping someone on the wrist with admonitions to “never do it again” simply isn’t working. All I’ll say for now is that we need to take a much more firm stance with ALL criminals if we are ever to win the war on crime. If you do want to read a further explanation, check out one of my earlier posts on either Michael Vick or Gregg Michael Pistochini. Anyway, have a great day and don’t do anything to earn yourself five seconds of fame in the local police blotter!

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Everyday, we hear about just how stupid criminals can be. You know, there are the robbers who cover their faces in duct tape as a cheap disguise without realizing how painful this will prove in the long run. Then there are people like my best friend’s brother who leave their cell phones at the scene of the crime and then have their home phones show up on the caller ID when they try to find where they lost it. These criminals come in every shape and size and from every walk of life. Out of all of them though, I think that our own Golf Ball Criminal wins the cake just for the sheer randomness of the crime.

Gregg Michael Pistochini is accused of stealing $19,000 in golf balls and then reselling them on Ebay. He was arrested on Tuesday in Roseville by an undercover policeman who sold him golf balls. First of all, WHO DOES THAT?! Secondly, not only is this whole scenario kind of bizarre, but it also almost seems like a waste of police efforts to me. I don’t really get why they needed an undercover policeman to arrest someone that they knew was dealing in stolen merchandise. It seems like a waste of manpower if you ask me. They can’t catch or stop all of the murders, drug dealing, and gang violence here in Sacramento, but good golly gosh, they sure can stop people from stealing them darn golf balls!!!

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