Homer Police Chief Pitman Joins to Discuss Holiday Safety

Matt Brooks: [00:00:00] Good morning. I’m Matt Brooks on X 1 0 1 Always Classic in for another edition of happening in Homer and with me today. It’s Village of Homer Police Chief Robert Pittman. How’s it going chief?

Chief Pitman: Great, Matt, how are you?

Matt Brooks: Doing well. It is the holiday season. It is busy and even though it’s really busy. Best be safe during the holiday season. Let’s talk about some of the holiday safety tips this year. Starting off with, a lot of people are shopping. When you’re shopping, how do you stay safe?

Chief Pitman: One of the quickest ways you can be safe is, you have a purse. Don’t leave it unattended in the cart.

Don’t leave it open so people see what you’ve got in there. I’ve always recommended using the childcare seat, locking your purse in there over the strap. So if the. Somebody does grab your purse to try to run away with it. They’re dragging that cart with ’em.

Matt Brooks: Yeah. It’s kind of, kind of hard to not be noticed with a whole shopping cart behind you.

Oh,

Chief Pitman: absolutely. And just, avoid keeping, the, the wallets in the back pocket or put it in the front pocket. Pick pockets, don’t flaw any cash out. If you take a package to your vehicle, keep your vehicles locked. Don’t put any packages inside. Use the trunk. Always stay alert in your surroundings.

You [00:01:00] might, if you start doing that, the. Awareness, situational awareness. You might see somebody following you.

Matt Brooks: Yeah. Small steps like that though can really increase your safety. Absolutely. Moving on another way, people are, shopping or is shopping online, meaning it’s shipped right to you.

Yep. And, porch piracy is a thing.

Chief Pitman: Oh, it really is. And you’ve got people just driving around looking for packages on front stops, quick opportunity. They grab the package and they’re gone within seconds. I would recommend asking for a signature required or. Tracking the, delivery times or even using an alternate location to have a package delivered.

Be it some employers allow packages to be delivered at work, delivered at a friend’s house,

Matt Brooks: or even a neighbor if you have a good relationship with them. Yep. Now lastly, speaking of home, there’s home safety too. There’s, you, you wanna have that whole holiday display with the Christmas tree and the presents, but that could also be a safety issue too.

Yeah. You get.

Chief Pitman: You put that it’s an invitation. You put a bunch of presents on a tree. It’s [00:02:00] an invitation, somebody driving by, they see the nice tree. They see all the packages. It’s an invitation that, they know it’s there. It’s brand new gifts.

Matt Brooks: The, the only person that should be wandering into your house is on Christmas Eve.

He wears a red suit and goes down the chimney. So keep the doors locked. Absolutely.

Chief Pitman: Now, and even after Christmas, I would recommend not putting, large package, the, the empty containers outside people are driving by. They’ll see what you got for Christmas.

Matt Brooks: Yeah. And that’s, that’s, especially those really large ones

tV boxes, furniture that really, it really stands out on a curbside. Yeah, and

Chief Pitman: it’s real quick, if you are going away for the holidays, you live in the village of Homer. Let us know. We’ll do property checks, check your house while you’re gone. Just give us a call.

Matt Brooks: And, and that phone number, the best.

Call (

Chief Pitman: 607) 749-2028.

Matt Brooks: Now we are, unfortunately we’re a little bit of running outta time chief, but I wanted to, go on a happier note ’cause we’re talking about all this safety and stealing all this such. Talk to me about Operation Toy Train. It’s coming up this Saturday.

Chief Pitman: Well, I’m really pleased it’s the first time,

it’s gonna happen here in the village. It’s [00:03:00] making stops between Syracuse and Binghamton, and we’re fortunate to have it stopped right here, right here in Homer at the police department because we are in an old train station. And so it’s gonna stop at, at 1235 and. 1250, it’s gonna depart for the City of Cortland.

Matt Brooks: Yeah. And then it’ll be from one to one 30 at the Cortland Community Center over there. So plenty of time if you miss us in Homer. Head on over to right to Cortland.

Chief Pitman: Santa’s gonna be riding that train along with the Marines and they’re collecting toys along the way, and I think this is a great opportunity for.

To help out our, help out people

Matt Brooks: and we’ll have more information regarding Operation Toy Train on our community calendar@wxhc.com. But for now, gotta thank you again, chief for coming in this morning.

Chief Pitman: Oh, I’m very glad to be here. Thank you.

Matt Brooks: And it’s been another edition of happening at Homer here on X 1 0 1 Oh.

Ways Classic. I’m Matt Brooks.