THE WATCHMEN: Retirees by day, local residents become crime-fighters by night

NEAR PALMVIEW — Dave Grinnell is in South Dakota now, but he keeps in touch with other former Winter Texans who now live here year-round.

Grinnell, 68, said he’s concerned about widespread flooding in the area. But that’s not why he worries about his property at Leisure Valley Ranch, west of Palmview.

A wave of theft and vandalism has struck the neighborhood in recent weeks. Miscreants have targeted golf carts other winter residents left locked up as well as other property in this neighborhood, located north of Expressway 83 and adjacent to Martin Valley Ranch Golf Course.

Grinnell and others with land in the neighborhood want authorities to step up their patrols to keep youths or other potential criminals out of their neighborhood late at night.

“We have always felt safe in Hidalgo County,” Grinnell said. But “if they don’t get in there and get this stopped, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

A group of retirees has even taken to patrolling the neighborhood at night, armed with baseball bats and other, more powerful means of “protection,” said Jerry, who refused to share his last name, fearing possible reprisal from hoodlums.

“We’re up all d--- night guarding the place.” said Jerry, 64. “The county can’t be here every minute … but we can.”

Jerry and his neighbors’ vigilante patrols recently netted two teenage boys from the area, he said. He and a neighbor caught the pair about 2 a.m. July 25. Two other juveniles ran off, but sheriff’s deputies responded and took the boys home.

“The parents should be responsible for their kids,” Jerry said. “They’re the ones who should know where the hell their kids are at 2:30 in the morning.”

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said he would deploy more deputies to the neighborhood and convene community meetings to organize a formal neighborhood watch program. He also plans to offer instruction on firearms laws, so residents who want to arm themselves know the rules and know when they can legally protect themselves or their property.

Residents say none of the recent incidents have been violent, and they have occasionally seen more deputies in the area in recent days. The loudest commotion caused by criminals occurred early Monday morning, when U.S. Border Patrol agents tracked a group of undocumented immigrants to the golf course, where a teenage boy, believed to be from Guatemala, drowned.

“The problem may not be as bad or as big as they think it is,” Treviño said. “But all they have to do is think it is big and they have a real problem. We have to try and eliminate as much as we can the fear of crime.”

Grinnell, who recently began carrying a gun for the first time, said he hopes his fear of criminals and the thefts in his neighborhood go away by the time he returns with his wife in November.

“I’m just an ornery old bastard from the word go,” he said, “and I’ll stay up all night just to shoot one of them.”

____

Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.