novatownhall blog

What do you know, another incident in Sterling with a person menacing an elderly woman, and the only public announcement sent out by e-mail which only a fraction of Sterling residents receive. Excluding me, for instance, although I am a “tech guy” I am not on the list for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office announcements. So it is safe to assume a lot of people in Sterling will get no information about this incident just like they got no information about last week’s incident.

Well, here is what happened last night, in the words of the woman who was at the center of the incident:

FROM:
South Dickenson Avenue
Sterling, VA 20164

1. This morning at approximately 245 am my dog woke me up by pawing at my arm and making a whining sound. As I turned over towards him, I noticed a shadow at my side bedroom window, which ducked out of the window. As I petted the dog, and he realized that I was awake he looked at the window and whined again. I looked at the window and again saw the shadow of a head, which appeared to the right side of air conditioner. Realizing that someone was outside the window, I reached to my night stand and set off the panic alarm in my house. At that point, the person ran away from the window. I got up and went into my half bathroom with my portable phone and called 911. The response was almost immediate (within a minute it seemed). I talked to the dispatcher, staying on the phone and my alarm company was calling but did not answer their call. The deputies were there and the dispatcher was telling me that they were outside. I could see their search lights, later I found out they also had a K-9 dog. THIS IS THE CASE NUMBER 2008-XXXXXX. After talking to the Deputy Weare, I was informed that the dog could not get a scent and that the grass over on the side hill was matted down. They will continue to search area and did shine search lights on backyard and both neighbors backyards. They will be patrolling the area the rest of the morning. Deputy said to reset alarm and lock back up and to please keep my dog inside. I have reset the alarm and tried to go back to bed—but I am too shook up.
2. At daybreak, around 630 am, my dog started to bark again and since it was light out, I let him go out in the backyard. He ran barking to the left corner of yard to tree and fence line. I didn’t see anything but the dog was bent on getting into the neighbors yard. I called and reported that to the non-emergency number.
3. Right now, we are both inside and all doors and windows are locked.

BACKGROUND:

I am a 65 year old widow and have lived in my Sterling Park house since 1967. I have never before been afraid living here BUT I am now. In 1997 when my husband passed away, my younger son had a Guardian Protection alarm system put in my house. THANK GOD. In 1998, I was given a dog named XXXXXX. XXXXXX is now 10 years old, weighs 116 pound and he is a black longhair retriever. THIS MORNING HE IS MY HERO. I think everyone should be aware of this incident.

It appears some people are targeting single, elderly women. I wonder what sorts of situations would place people in the position to scope out such women. I hope the Loudoun County detectives are cross referencing those occupations which may be using illegal laborers against the data on where attacks have occurred.

Somehow, the perps are scoping out residences where elderly women are living alone.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 12:57 am and is filed under Community, Sterling Crime Wave. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.