PSA

PoPville PSA – Can’t register online with the DMV using Safari

By Prince Of Petworth

12781395755_ed14f9b5d6_z
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.”

Heads Up Runners – Unstable Man at Connecticut and Porter

By Prince Of Petworth

“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”

By Prince Of Petworth

16299143211_aef49198cb_z
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.”

When to Text the Police using 50411

By Prince Of Petworth

7981456088_3317269d4b_z
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.”

Heads Up – Phone Scam Alert – “there’s an arrest warrant out for you”

By Prince Of Petworth

10806443245_bcaac5e6b0_z
Photo by PoPville flickr user number7cloud

From this morning’s rant/revel:

“Heads up – I just got a phone call from a recording saying that there’s an arrest warrant out for me in Texas and to call this attorney. I’ve been in Dallas for work, so I called the DC police (because your natural reaction is OMG!) and it’s a total scam. Should have known because it was a recording, it never said where in TX and it never said the warrant was for. It rang in as 911, which I grabbed because I’ve never seen that number come up and didn’t know what was going on. Luckily, they’ve got nothing but my number. Unluckily, there’s no way to track these calls or to know who’s doing them.

The DCPD said they’ve gotten a ton of complaints about them so be careful out there folks.”

A Reminder to Not Walk while Reading Your Kindle Fire at 1am

By Prince Of Petworth

I seriously don’t mean to be flippant nor am I trying to start a blame the victim post here. However, I do think it’s important to remind some folks that it is not a good idea to walk around late at night with phones, ipads, kindles or other electronic devices out. You are distracted and a target and MPD continually tells us thieves are looking for this. I’m not suggesting people be terrified and cower in their homes but it is important to not get complacent and exercise street smarts as well.

From MPD:

“At approximately 12:55 a.m. [Saturday], a citizen was walking in the 1400 Block of Maryland Avenue, NE with his Kindle Fire in his hand. He was approached by 3 black males who struck him in his head and robbed him of his Kindle Fire. The citizen was treated by medics on the scene and no arrest have been made at this time.

S1 was described as a black male in his early 20’s 5’8-5’9 in height. S1 had dreadlocks and was wearing a hat and blue jeans.

S2 was described as a black male in his early 20’s 5’8-5’9 in height. S2 was wearing a Holly Hanson Jacket

S3 was described as a black male in his early 20’s 5’8-5’9 in height. S3 was wearing a T-shirt and sweat pants.

The First District Detective’s Office will be investigating this case.”

“So, word to the wise, from one cyclist to another: don’t leave your bike outside overnight no matter which neighborhood you’re in”

By Prince Of Petworth

5031063903_2a5517d581_z
Photo by PoPville flickr user AWard Tour

“Dear PoPville,

Stolen bike: recovered. Stolen again.

I bought an older model grey Schwinn Moab secondhand about 2 years ago.

It was stolen from the corner of Euclid & Ontario NW in September.

The next day I recovered it at 14/T NW across from Saint-Ex.

A guy had it chained to a stop sign & I confronted him about it (probably not the best idea). Anyway, he willingly handed it over after I threatened to call the cops.

Between 12pm Oct. 15th and 12pm Oct. 16th it was stolen again. This time from the corner of 15/N NW.

Of course, by this point I realize it’s my own dumb fault for having faith in humanity I could leave a bike outside overnight.

However, I wanted to relay my experience with the MPD.

Shortly after it happened I was able to flag down an officer and ask him how to report a stolen bike.

(The bike probably isn’t worth much, but I use it everyday to commute.)

The officer informed me I could go to the nearest police station (in this case, 14/U) and file a report.

But “without a serial number, it [the report] is just gonna get thrown in the trash.”

So, word to the wise, from one cyclist to another: don’t leave your bike outside overnight no matter which neighborhood you’re in.

And write down your bike’s serial number if you (theoretically) want the MPD to take your case seriously.

Best of luck,
Your Adams Morgan neighbor”

Update – of course the bike was locked.

unnamed

View More Stories