Detroit ‘ugly’ shows up in Snoqualmie Valley

My letter is to all my fellow neighbors and residents. We’re pretty safe here — but remember to secure your belongings, regardless of the sense of community and safety you may feel. There are prowlers and ne’er-do-wells whose numbers seem to be increasing.

My letter is to all my fellow neighbors and residents. We’re pretty safe here — but remember to secure your belongings, regardless of the sense of community and safety you may feel. There are prowlers and ne’er-do-wells whose numbers seem to be increasing.

I tell you this because last Monday, I awoke in the predawn hours to ready myself for a start of another work week and I was greeted by my home being decorated in the night by some individuals who think toilet paper makes great landscaping flourishes.

Being a former teenager and now parent to a teen, my sense of humor in it took over my irritation at having to clean up the mess — the second such “decorating” to don our home in the last week or so.

But that humor was quickly replaced with downright lividness when I climbed into my vehicle to make the commute to work and found that my car had been broken into. The glove box and console compartments were ripped apart and my beloved iPod with its mobile docking station had been stolen.

This iPod had accompanied me to Iraq and saw me through some really rough post-deployment days. And it also musically carried me on my journey more than three years ago from the crime and depression of the city of Detroit, to my true idyllic home of North Bend. It’s a clunker as far as iPods go, but it was a companion and beloved possession of mine. And now it’s gone.

Likely it’d still be here save an unusual Sunday afternoon routine, which left my normally locked vehicle unlocked. My car has gone overnight before unsecured, but was left unmolested. Not this night. No, this night, someone targeted our home and it’s not been the first time. Unfortunately, I doubt it will be the last.

My husband teases me sometimes and says that you can take the woman out of Detroit but you can’t take the Detroit out of the woman, meaning oftentimes I was overly paranoid and cautious. However, these recent events tell me that a little bit of the ugly I thought I left back in the Big City, is roaming up and down Cedar Falls Road. Your little “toilet paper” joke went too far. So, whoever you are, you proved to me that I still have to act as if the East Side of Detroit is still just around the bend. But, could you please return my iPod?

But if I don’t get it back, perhaps my neighbors will be on higher alert. Lock your cars, doors and windows. It’s a sad day in the valley for sure.

Casondra Brewster

Wilderness Rim, North Bend