CocoChanel
Retired WS Staff
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2009
- Messages
- 7,332
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I think the NextDoor app does encourage neighbors to call in suspicious activity. At least that has been my experience. One night I was up for the bathroom and heard what sounded like a distant gunshot, but could not be sure, or know where it had come from since it seemed several blocks away. I had trouble going back to sleep so I fired up the old iPad and went to the nextDoor app to find someone had already posted about hearing the gunshot. There were several others also reading at that time and they all encouraged the original poster to call LE. Sometimes it just takes confirmation from another to nudge one to do what's right.
... I just wanted to add my two cents and help you understand the area a little more and explain why I think this robbery was probably chosen because it was on the way to a familiar place, and from what we know of the evidence so far, it makes sense that they were probably on their way to "cheese's" house and selected sunnyfield court because it was just off that route, as bessie, and others, have suggested... If they were solely out looking for a wealthy neighborhood, there are a lot of high dollar areas between the Cottages and sunnyfield court that they could've selected. To understand Indy today, the subarbs are continually growing further and further out from the downtown circle due to crime. The Blackburn's live in the midst of crime, their addition is surrounded by it (generally this is the norm). It's about 20 miles out to the higher property value, low crime areas - a little more or little less depending on which direction you travel from that central area. However, like the area of the Blackburn's addition, we do have pockets of nice neighborhoods/streets scattered throughout Indy, like in the Butler Tarkington area, Broad Ripple, and several blocks with historical homes on Meridian Street, and the Meridian/Kessler area - all of which are in the same general direction (and/or equivalent distance) they traveled to get to the Blackburn's. Sadly, those areas, I described them as pockets, are decreasing in size, with residents leaving for the suburbs because the crime is just too close to home, especially those with young children, leaving in search of better schools and safer communities to raise them in. Indy can literally have one street with nice, beautiful homes and then the surrounding streets are low rent, run down homes filled with gang problems. Homeowners on Meridian have said no more and have formed neighborhood watches, many have turned to surveillance, alarm systems, etc, but burglars use avoidance and figure out ways to disarm them, etc. The City's tried to help with programs that fund building up certain areas, increasing patrol for security checks, etc, but many still feel overwhelmed by crime... Criminals find ways, it doesn't seem to be enough...Remember, these guys knew how to disable surveillance systems, they seemed pretty comfortable and confident, even entering occupied homes...not first-timers here. I'm not sure how much would've deterred this group...Anyway, the point I was trying to make is locals know the areas I just mentioned, so if watson, taylor, and gordon were just getting out of the area and the sole purpose was to go to a wealthier area to get more money I don't think that sunnyfield court would've been on the top of their list... I'm certainly not a burglar, but if I was looking for money that doesn't seem like a likely choice, given the surroundings and better options, imo. I think there was a reason other than that, I think they were probably on their way to see Cheese - the route makes sense if the destination was guion rd, and sunnyfield court isn't far off of 38th St and it's near I-65... What I would love to know is their route, the exact route they drove that morning. There are many, so that would answer a lot. The best route (nothing is really direct) to the Blackburn's (and guion rd), which I posted in an earlier thread, is binford - fall creek parkway - 38th St, this route swings around all the nicer areas I mentioned above, where as, most of the other routes take you right through many of those areas, or very near... One other thing about the routes and I'll stop rambling, as I said earlier, there's no direct route and the streets have heavy traffic, lots of traffic lights, and go through commercial areas, so there should be plenty of surveillance available of them as they drove. I'm sure LE knows what streets they went on, and/or what streets they didn't... The evidence we have so far though leads me to believe that there was some truth to the "cheese" part of taylor's statement, and I usually take what these perps say with a grain of salt...unless evidence supports it. I think it makes sense that they were headed to guion rd, for what and exactly why, idk... There's still a lot we don't know, but I know understanding the area helps so I'll try to offer what I can when possible... 
