A Crime or a Doggie Good Samaritan

The major crime news in this week's Dahlonega Nugget's Crimebeat was the unchained dog. According to the newspaper, a Lumpkin County resident tied his dog to a tree with a heavy logging chain. When man returned home, someone had unchained the dog, the dog was running loose, and the logging chain was gone. (Could this have been the work of a doggie Good Samaritan and not that of a chain thief?)

But the missing chain wasn't the only local crime reported in the Crimebeat section. Others included:

1. A stolen AC unit (Obviously the 90 degree temperatures had driven this thief to desperation.)
2. A woman's roommate stealing and pawning a weed-eater. (Didn't realize weed-eaters were that valuable.)
3. Woman accusing her landlord of snooping in her house. (Now that's not good.)
4. Resident receiving harassing text messages. (Yes, cybercrime is everywhere, even in Dahlonega.)
5. Three mailboxes smashed and one mailbox stolen. (Making mail delivery even harder for our post office.)
6. And a mystery bb gun shooter popping "out the bed of a truck" shooting a car driving down a local road. (This apparent kid's prank could have turned deadly. Glad the driver reported the incident to the Sheriff.)

Unfortunately, last week Lumpkin Sheriff's department did arrest people for  more serious crimes than are listed here, but compared to other Georgia counties, especially those in Metro Atlanta, Dahlonega and Beyond is a safe place to visit and and definitely a safe place to live.

Crime Report - Atlanta vs. Dahlonega

Any day that you pick up the Atlanta Journal Constitution, you'll see the front page filled with crime reports, i.e. - Resident opens fire on two intruders, Cars broken into in Buckhead, Boyfriend killed by stiletto heel.

Now Dahlonega has its share of crime too. In fact, the second page of the local newspaper, The Dahlonega Nugget, each week features Crimebeat, a snapshot look of the week's crimes.

Here are some of the actual crimes reported in Crimebeat:

1.  A woman reported that someone had broken in to her home, stole some important papers and fed the dog. She thinks the culprit is her ex-husband.

2.  An allegedly intoxicated man wearing all black climbed onto the roof of Piazza's. He was arrested for public drunkenness.

3. A woman threw a party and a lot of people she didn't know showed up. Later, he found someone had stolen her laptop, cell phone and $100.

4.  A woman reported that someone stole the power meter from the side of her house.

And here's our vote for the biggest crime of the week - A deputy accidentally struck a mailbox with his patrol car.

As you can see, these are some pretty serious crimes. But when you compare these incidents with the seemingly unending crime in Atlanta, you can see why Dahlonega and Beyond is quite a safe place to be.