Residents on Starlight Drive awoke Saturday morning to find a note taped to their mailboxes with the plea, “Let’s take Starlight back.”

The street is in the Enchanted Hills subdivision off Porters Chapel Road. Residents said they weren’t surprised by the note and hope it will increase awareness and combat what some are calling criminal activity in the neighborhood.

“It is here in the neighborhood, and it needs to be stopped,” Starlight Drive resident Denise Cooper said. “I’m outraged. It’s sad that neighbors have to put this out to save their own neighborhood.”

The note, posted anonymously, says, “Residents of Starlight Drive: Please be aware that homes are being broken into and drugs are being sold on our street and this MUST STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please… Please… Please… Call 911 every time you see something suspicious. ‘Let’s take Starlight back.’”

Cooper, who moved to the neighborhood in 2000, said, “Just last night, (my neighbor) said he saw someone try to twist their door knob while they were in their house.”

Her neighbor, John Shorter, who’s lived on Starlight for 15 years, said, “We were victims last fall. We had three game systems stolen. When I talked to the police, (they said our neighborhood) has had seven break-ins since the fall of 2009.

“I asked for more patrol during school hours,” he continued. “It’s a working neighborhood. The criminals know it’s a working neighborhood.”

Shorter blames “new people moving into the neighborhood or visitors coming in.” He estimates 30 percent of residents are new.

“I didn’t think we were receiving a lot of calls in that area in recent weeks,” Police Chief Walter Armstrong said Saturday night, “but I would have to confirm that with our records.”

Shorter, who is president of the Vicksburg NAACP, said he is developing a neighborhood watch for the subdivision of about 100 homes.

“What we want to do is bring awareness and form some type of watch,” he said. “I have asked the city to provide patrol, and Armstrong said the call already went out for providing those.”

Patrols being made due to a special request usually go on for a week, Armstrong said, however, “if it’s continuous, then it will last longer.”

As for Enchanted Hills, Armstrong said community resource officers, who serve as a bridge between the community and police, have visited the subdivision and are working to help residents establish a watch program.

“It will take the neighbors coming together and getting to know each other to report anything suspicious,” he said.

“It’s happening — you can’t deny it,” Shorter said. “You can fight back, or continue to be their victim.”

*

Contact Manivanh Chanprasith at mchan@vicksburgpost.com