A Sept. 22 email based on an incident at the home of a Cardiff Park subdivision couple in Peachtree City has generated a flurry of other email activity around the city.
The incident pertaining to a woman entering the house supposedly to clean the residence and then leaving after speaking with the husband was reported to Peachtree City Police later that day. Officers subsequently received a copy of the email apparently sent by the residents and reviewed the statements from the portion of the email relating to whether current crime issues in the city were accurate.
The department after the review determined that some of the specifics of the email may be the result of an unintended miscommunication. That miscommunication dealt with the context in which the officer was relaying incidents that had occurred during the past few years as opposed to the incident on Sept. 22.
Peachtree City Police spokesperson Capt. Rosanna Dove said the incident report indicated that the family reported that a black female of approximately 50 years of age entered their home through the rear door and was confronted by the husband, who stated that the female said she was there to see if she could perform cleaning services for his wife who was not at home at the time. Finally, the female walked out of the home, got in what is believed to be a late model Ford Focus and left the area, according to reports. This all allegedly occurred at approximately 1 p.m., with the family contacting the Fayette County 911 Dispatch Center at approximately 4:40 p.m. to report the incident, Dove said.
The email that has received significant circulation in the Peachtree City community noted the circumstances of the woman’s entry into the Crown Point residence in the Cardiff Point subdivision while the husband was watching television in the family room.
“He heard the door open and thought it was our very smart kittens! He came around the corner and saw this woman heading back to the door. He questioned her and she very calmly said she had spoken with (the wife) and she was coming to clean the house today. (The husband) thought well she knew our name and was by herself. He didn’t know if I had forgotten to tell him she was coming as our cleaning lady is out of town. He said he didn’t know anything about it and he would have to talk to me. So she left and said well just have her call me, I’m Barbara Green. (He) looked out the window and she had backed her car into the driveway, like a cleaning lady would do or like someone trying to rob you blind would do! He said she was in a blue 4 door small Ford sedan like a Focus. After he called me at school, I said I had no idea who she was and I remembered our family sign at the back door. So that is how she knew our name. She totally was coming to clean out our house. Good thing (he) didn’t question and confront her, she could’ve pulled a gun on him. We called the police and reported it,” the email said.
Perhaps what has received as much community attention as anything related to the incident is the portion of the email that indicated that the responding officer informed the homeowners that rings of people from College Park and surrounding areas are burglarizing houses in Peachtree City during normal work hours and entering vehicles.
Dove reviewed the video of the conversation between the officer and the Crown Point residents and released the following statement on Sept. 30.
“We understand that the email that was forwarded from the family has caused concern throughout the community. The officer who responded to their home did talk to them at length about the burglaries and entering autos occurring in the city; however, at this time, the police department has not established a logical link between the two types of crimes,” Dove said. ”Additionally, while the officer did discuss individuals from College Park committing particular crimes in our city, there is no link, nor evidence that these statements are correct regarding the recent burglaries and entering autos.”
Dove said she believes the email is a result of sincere intent by the homeowners to relay the circumstances of an incident that occurred and to provide a warning to their neighbors. But some of the information contained in the email was inadvertently combined with crime activity that covered several years and was not applicable to the Sept. 22 incident, Dove said.
Also pertaining to the Crown Point incident, Dove said on Sept. 26 the department issued an I-Net alert asking the public for any information that might be related to the incident that the email had reported. As of the afternoon of Sept. 29 no additional information has been reported to the Police Department.
Additionally, a review of other incident reports has provided no additional information to help police locate the person described by the resident, said Dove.
Dove said that over the past few months the department has issued a number of alerts and updates pertaining to residential burglaries that occurred in several apartment complexes and entering auto incidents throughout the city.
“The department does not have any information to support that there are rings of people from other cities or areas burglarizing or hitting houses all in Peachtree City. We do know that the residential burglaries that have occurred have been limited to the apartment complexes and that they have generally occurred during the hours between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., when people are at work,” Dove said. ”We also know that as much information as possible has been relayed to citizens and the media about these incidents. Through media press releases and I-Net alerts, we have provided crime prevention tips, updates on possible criminal activity, and a variety of other information to assist our citizens in helping us locate those responsible.”
“The bottom line is that our city is not immune from crime,” Dove continued. ”There are a number of ways that we are responding to the various issues, and we will continue to develop plans that will help us arrest those responsible – as we did with the subjects arrested for the Target robberies.”
