you know you live in a sketchy neighborhood when...

...you get "evacuated" in the middle of the night by 2 cops and they tell you that you need to go spend the night somewhere else.

eesh.

i don't want to admit i live in a shady neighborhood so guess what? i'm a reporter. i did what i do best: some research.

* in the past 30 days, there have been 11 thefts, 1 sexual assault and 2 acts of breaking and entering in a 1/4 mile radius of the house (4-plex) i live in now.

* for the sake of comparison, my old house (a duplex) has had 2 assaults, 2 thefts from a vehicle, 2 regular thefts and 1 act of breaking and entering within the same distance over the same period of time.

* and my neighborhood in ohio? just 1 report of breaking and entering in the area in the past month. granted, i think they were only counting the columbus police, so maybe the dublin police has had more reports.

so, based solely on these bits of information, i would like to conclude (even though i should try to search for more data...i just don't have time today) that dublin, ohio has significantly less crime than our neighborhoods in innocent, little utah. who knew? not me. but that's how the numbers shake down this time around. glad ruth and drew have me in the habit of locking our doors...that's something i didn't do for about 99% of my college life.

i'll admit, i'm probably a little more trusting than i should be. when i went to lunch yesterday, i toyed with the idea of leaving my backpack (with my laptop, portable hard drive, wallet, car keys and gps inside of it, among other things) unattended in the newsroom (yes -- i am sort of an idiot, thanks). i know crime happens...but it just seems like it would never happen to me. and that's probably the type of attitude that will get my stuff stolen someday.

the situation last night was a little unusual...one of our neighbors was robbed (to the tune of about $4500) and the cops found most of their stuff at a pawn shop...except for the stolen guns (yikes). the #1 suspect is another one of our neighbors who is apparently a bit behind on rent who has magically decided to skip town (smooth move, dude). so the cops were thinking he'd come back last night for round two, but i don't think that happened. better safe than sorry though -- especially with stolen weapons still out there somewhere.

one of the most important things i've learned as a reporter is that there are tons of things the government has that are public information but that many people never care to look at. one of these is police reports. so...how dangerous is your neighborhood? check it out: crimereports.com.

so stay safe...because you never know who might be lurking...