Side Streets ~ Neighborhood people and issues

Archive for the 'Pit Bulls' Tag

The neighbors aren’t fooled

July 18th, 2010, 12:01 pm by

If you think you are fooling your neighbors about something going on at your home, forget about it.

Neighbors always seem to know what’s going on next door or down the street.

There are no secrets.

The Shooks Run neighborhood is a good example.

Folks there are convinced someone is selling drugs from a rental property near East Bijou Street and North Corona Street. It has a parade of people, day and night, seven days a week, neighbors say.

Men and women, young and old, drop by for quick visits. For months they stopped at recreational vehicles parked at the house. Now they visit the garage.

We are not specifying the exact house because we could not reach the owner, nor could we prove that any illegal activity is going on.

Here is a look at the area from FlashEarth:

We checked with Colorado Springs officials and found the house is well-known to them.

Code enforcement administrator Ken Lewis said the city has a list of complaints dating to 2005.

In 2008, his officers condemned an upstairs apartment in the duplex. Officers found unsanitary conditions and evicted a man, woman and two children from the apartment, as well as two pit bulls.

After I observed the house for myself, I became convinced something strange is going on.

I saw a steady flow of foot traffic, bicyclists and motorists coming and going. Even teenagers from nearby Palmer High School. What I saw matched what neighbors told me.

They also report bizarre behavior, such as naked men making late-night visits to the house. And some have found what they believe was drugs outside the house.

Here’s what I saw. The photo below  shows one of a parade of people who walked, biked and drove up to the RVs, made quick visits and left.

(I have digitally obscured the person’s clothing.)

Note the way blankets and tarps are roped across the RV to obscure it.

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One fellow was in a hurry. He drove up, parked the wrong way, hopped out and was on his way in a jiffy.

(His license plate and other identifying marks have been erased, digitally, as well.)

A sign on the door of one RV had a sign: School of Professional Psychology. Hmmm

Neighbors tell me they’ve picked up drug paraphernalia and baggies with white substances they believed were some sort of illegal drugs.

One neighbor said a man visiting the RV stripped naked and tried to break into her house late one night.

The last photo, below, shows  a fellow who was not too happy to see me taking photos. After I shot this frame, he broke into a sprint toward me, yelling something I can’t repeat. Suffice to say he wasn’t wishing me a nice day.

Since I called Colorado Springs Code Enforcement, both RVs have been moved away. But neighbors say drugs are still be sold from the garage on the property.

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ACHILLES IS FREE, sort of

May 27th, 2009, 6:20 pm by

Remember Achilles the pit bull? I wrote about the 5-year-old dog in April. Here is a photo of Achilles taken by its owners, Danny and Susan Polston:

achilles2

For seven months, Achilles sat in dog jail, confined at the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region at $10 a day awaiting trial that would determine if it was a dangerous animal.

Achilles was set free on May 21, released to his owners.

OK, free is overstating it a bit.

Achilles is not allowed to run with other dogs. Even inside a six-foot-tall wooden privacy fence. It must remain on leash under its owner’s control, or confined in an “escape proof” kennel — the kind with a roof and secured at the bottom so the dog can dig or climb out.

Why such precautions? Because the last time Achilles ran loose in the yard, he launched himself over two fences, about four-feet tall, and mauled Moonbear, a 12-year-old mixed breed dog owned by next-door neighbors Michael and Diane Elmore. Moonbear is seen relaxing below in a photo submitted by the Elmores. 

Moonbear

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Already, Achilles is causing heartburn on Nokomis Circle, an unincorporated neighborhood on Colorado Springs’ eastern edge.

The plea agreement called for Achilles to be on leash or in an escape-proof kennel whenever he is outside. But Diane Elmore said Achilles was running loose inside its fenced backyard the first night home.

Danny Polston denies it and calls it a “big misunderstanding” and warns Elmore to mind her own business.

Ouch. Sounds like the humans are doing as much barking as the dogs. 

Here is a link to my previous column on Achilles.

Any bets on how this one ends?

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