Safety in the Town of Cheektowaga

I guess it's common to be anxious to go to the US, sebab bahaya.. ramai orang jahat.. jenayah sana-sini. Tu la.. too much TV kot?

Surprisingly, the place here is pretty safe, alhamdulillah. Compared to Kuala Lumpur, where I lived for 10 years, for example:

Most houses here do not have the frontyard fenced. No locked gates enforced with mangga, no grill for the doors or the windows. Some houses have only the backyard fenced, sebab biasanya budak-budak main kat belakang rumah. See contoh rumah in pictures.

And for us, we park the car at the driveway, outside of the backyard fence. It has only the alarm lock. My Wira back home used three locks - alarm lock, gear lock, and steering lock (boleh jadi club jugak untuk ketuk kepala orang jahat!).

The crime statistics for Cheektowaga can be found at CityRating.com, tapi nak try compare dengan Malaysia's, tak jumpa yang sesuai..

Granted, this is a small town, a suburb of the City of Buffalo. It is kind of cute actually, bila tengok small businesses (including private practices) running in small buildings that look more like houses than kedai. I tried to look for pictures of that tapi tadok.. so tak dapak nak share kat sini.

At first I found the name Cheektowaga is kind of strange... don't you think? But that's the legacy of the Native Americans here. Some other Red Indianish names around here are Tonawanda, Lackawanna, Seneca..

The Town of Amherst, a nearby one, is the second safest city in the US. A copy of the list is available at infoplease.com. (We are thinking of moving to Michigan, tapi since Detroit is one of the most dangerous cities, definitely nowhere near it.. or the nearby city Dearborn, which is called the American Muslim Capital. That's kind of disappointing).

That's why I have to tell this story. Last week at 5am we were in the kitchen.. I was doing the dishes.. and suddenly we heard a very loud noise at the back door. Dum!! Gosh! What's that? I panicked, maybe. Who is trying to break in? Should we call the police? Yeah!

"Hello. Someone is at the back of our door!"
"Could you tell me what happened?"
"We were in the kitchen and suddenly heard a very loud noise at the back door."
"Do you speak Spanish, Mem?"
"No." Ampeh. It must be my foreign accent.
"Did you look outside? Are you sure it's not the strong wind?" It's kinda windy that night.
"I don't think so. But we were too scared to look outside."
"OK, calm down Mem. We'll send someone to check, OK? What's the address?"
I hate it when I have to spell out the name of something uncommon (imagine how my name became PUPERI KGLINE). OK, S as in South, then Singapore England India ..bla.. bla..

Then Rashad was able to peek out the window. Nobody's outside. Apparently the wind broke off the arm of the outer door (ironically it's double door to protect from the wind). That's the loud noise! We felt stupid.

So I called them back and told them there was nothing dangerous at the back of the door. They're still coming to check and make sure.

A few minutes later I answered the front door. There were five policemen and three police cars. I told them we are fine. They asked about the other half of the duplex, because it was dark and the door was ajar. The neighbor moved out a few weeks before*. I saw one of the policemen holding a pistol in his hand as they went inside to check the empty house. Whoa.. that's the closest firearm I've seen in action!!

Well, we think we provided the police something interesting to do at the boring wee hours of the weeknight :)

Anyway, what I wanted to say here is that:
Dear Mak, Apak, dan seluruh keluarga, serta kawan-kawan,
Janganlah risaukan kami di sini.. inshaAllah berkat doa semua, kami selamat sejahtera walaupun jauh dari keluarga tercinta dan kawan-kawan tersayang. Semoga Allah sentiasa pelihara kita semua. Amin!


* Yes! THAT neighbor moved out. No more dog pooping at the backyard! :D Rashad said I should not have used the word sh_t.. it's kind of vulgar. Poop is more appropriate for a blog. I thot sh_t is normal. Duh!