Now that we’ve hit 80 degree days, here’s an important reminder that the slush puppie machine in the gas station at 15th and U St, NW is back in action. But God dang it they swapped Blue Raspberry for Mango.
Ed. Note: The Mango was pretty decent.
PSA
Security Camera Footage of Alleged bike and package thief in Mount Pleasant
A reader reports:
“I live in the Argyle at Mt. Pleasant and Park Road and a few days ago (4/29) a dude stole some bikes and packages from our basement. He got in once by dialing up random numbers on the call box and the other time when he followed someone that was coming in. Apparently he’s on camera across the street at the Park Ridge recently stealing packages as well.
Someone in the building did see him after we circulated the photos, so he seems to be a local or at least spends significant time in the neighborhood.
Obviously I don’t expect any return on the stolen items but if people keep an eye out, maybe they can prevent their own stuff from being snatched by him, since he’s making a habit of it.”
A reader writes in:
“15th street bike lane.
This picture was taken Sunday afternoon about 3pm. I know moving is not easy but blocking the bike lane seems a pretty unfair.”
Photo via MPD Lost and Found: Recovered Property
A reader writes:
“I am quite sure this has been covered on the blog but just looked at the MPD lost and found photos, there are many many bicycles and laptops shown.”
The Metropolitan Police Department recovers hundreds of stolen and abandoned bicycles every year. This property is inventoried by the MPD’s Evidence Control Division. Property not claimed within 90 days of recovery is considered abandoned. The MPD will advertise this property as abandoned and may dispose of any property not claimed within the designated timeframe. Bicycles not claimed may be auctioned through www.govdeals.com or donated. Before the recovered bicycles are auctioned or donated, images will be posted online.
The Property Clerk of the Metropolitan Police Department hereby gives notice of the custody of the following property and his intention to sell or otherwise dispose of such property in accordance with the District of Columbia’s code 5-119.
Any person or entity having a right of claim to any item of property pictured online must appear in person to:
Evidence Control Division
# 17 DC Village Lane, SW
Washington, DC 20032
(202) 727-3230To claim property pictured on this site, individuals must provide the MPD’s Evidence Control Division with the following information:
Government Identification
Bar code included with the bicycle image
Proof of ownership of bicycle OR documentation that a police report was filed (CCN)
“Dear PoPville,
I just wanted to send a note that there has apparently been a string of daytime burglaries on and around Maryland Ave NE. My neighbor’s house at Maryland & 11th NE was broken into during the day last week. That same day around noon a man knocked on my door asking for someone who doesn’t live here. A detective called today and told me they’ve seen a big increase in burglaries in the area, with the burglars becoming more “brazen” and that it’s a common tactic for them to knock on the door to see if anyone is home first.”
Photo by PoPville flickr user Katie Yaeger Rotramel
“Dear PoPville,
DC has parking time limits in many areas, but the ParkMobile app keeps letting you pay. Unfortunately, this resulted in a ticket. Sketchy on my part, perhaps, but I do find it ridiculous that the city continued to take my money through the app only to ticket me. I protested the ticket but lost and will pay it, since I’m a decent citizen (I guess), but frankly I see a serious problem here. Either the app can alert you that you can’t stay in the zone, or a ticket is unfair — can’t have it both ways.
Perhaps others have had a similar experience.
Update:
I heard back from ParkMobile; I emailed them explaining the situation and this is what they had to say when explaining that the app keeps allowing you to extend your time and pay: “Our zones are configured in the way DC dictates and they haven’t asked us to restrict parking for this regulation.” It seems the app has the technology…but DC chooses not to use it, I’m sure for their benefit.”
Photo by PoPville flickr user John Sonderman
“Dear PoPville,
Here is a PSA. Last year I spent a very frustrating time renewing my registration with DMV. The system kept on returning an error message. I found a nice person in the Director’s office, who processed it for me manually. If figured there was some problem they would fix. This year, same result. I have a Mac and use Safari (I would think lots of others do too). I now realize that I could only process my renewal using Chrome (rather than Safari.) So, since the DMV seems not interested in fixing the site, they should at least warn users not to use Safari. Don’t want people to waste their time.”
“Dear PoPville,
Something really strange happened this morning running down Porter from Connecticut and I was hoping you could remind readers to be careful out there!
I passed a guy on the sidewalk waiting for the bus, I don’t know what set him off but next thing I knew he was chasing me down the hill screaming at me. I turned around to face him and he just kept yelling at me. I’m about 5’3 and the guy was easily 5’11-6′ and angry. I tried to calmly apologize but I’m really not sure what would have happened had another man not been running towards us shouting at the guy to knock it off.
I don’t really know what else I could have done, but just wanted to remind people to be careful around there.”
Knocking on Your Door vol. 12: “you are not required to sign with Direct Energy as a Pepco customer”
Photo by PoPville flickr user Jordan Barab
“Dear PoPville,
TLDR; you are not required to sign with Direct Energy as a Pepco customer. You have many choices on how to source your energy as a Pepco customer. If they come to your door, hopefully you won’t feel obligated to sign with them.
I just wanted to write in and warn the rest of your readers about Direct Energy, who came to our door last night. Direct Energy is a legitimate provider of energy to Pepco, and due to energy deregulation in DC, is one of the many providers Pepco customers have the option of choosing to purchase their energy from. If you choose to sign on with one of these providers, your bill will still come from Pepco, but Pepco will purchase energy from the provider you selected instead of whomever they choose. The benefit of purchasing from a provider is often being locked into a fixed rate, and the ability to factor in environmental considerations (by purchasing only solar, or from a clean energy provider such as Ethical Electric).
The salespeople who came to our door from Direct Energy made several misrepresentations, which made the customer feel like they were required to sign up for their service:
-First, they cited the reason for coming to our home was that we had not responded to a notification in our Pepco bill within 6 months. We were unable to locate this notification, and they made it seem that there would be an issue with Pepco if we didn’t respond. They said that by responding to this notification we would stop our rates from rising.
-Second, they spoke about the deregulation as something that had recently occurred and warranted a change in our service. DC Pepco customers have had provider options for quite some time, and to my knowledge, nothing about that has changed recently. (Please let me know if I’m mistaken and there was a recent change!)
-Third, they had us sign a form that authorized the company to contact us and make the change to their service. After signing this form, the salesperson immediately entered our contact info into his iPad and had corporate call us IMMEDIATELY following our conversation. This gave you no time to do alternate research, or even substantiate their claims of deregulation and rising rates.
Interested in hearing if any of your readers had a similar experience with Direct Energy, and if so, if they felt that in the sales interaction that they were required to make the switch.”
Photo by PoPville flickr user Phil
From textdoc via DC.gov:
“Text 50411Community members can now use their cell phones to anonymously text tips about serious or violent crimes to the Metropolitan Police Department.
Give 5-0 the 411 with the MPD’s Text Tip Line: 50411. Text messages are monitored by members of the department 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Tips on serious or violent crimes will be investigated by members of the department. If you would like a police response for any incident, please call 911. All tips may also be directed to (202) 727-9099 and may be eligible for a reward.
Because the tip line is anonymous, the sender will not receive a response to the original message. The anonymous text tip line is not an emergency number. If you witness a crime in progress or have an emergency that requires the police, please call 911.”