Calling police only seems to make us less safe in Paia.

When a career criminal who steals from our shop in front of us, assaults my employee multiple times, attempts to break into cars in our parking lot and scares off our customers, we are treated like the criminals.

We are the victims! This is just one example. We are afraid to call police anymore because it seems we will be a target.

Other business owners in our town say they have similar problems as we do. We as a group are trying to handle these criminals by posting photos of the worst offenders to warn each other.

I thought the new police chief Pelletier was supposed to clean things up. I’ve sent three emails to him, with photos, videos and nothing, not even a form letter back.

Help us.

As a female shop owner, I’m an easy target. What is it going to take for us to us to feel safe and protected?

Retail is a hard business these days. It would be much easier and profitable if we had one less big thing to worry about.

Annette Summers

Paia