Merchants start Business Watch

By Jessica King

Merchants from Main Street to San Diego Country Estates are teaming up to protect each other from break-ins, holdups, and all other sorts of criminal activity.

San Diego County Sheriff’s Department Crime Prevention Specialist Barbara Wallace approached the Ramona Chamber of Commerce about starting a Business Watch Program and chamber officials jumped at the idea, said Barbara Worden, chamber executive assistant.

Similar to a Neighborhood Watch Program, the Business Watch Program entails participating merchants declaring their interest in protecting one another by posting stickers and/or signs in the windows of their businesses.

There are also five large signs going up around town to alert crooks that crime prevention efforts are under way.

“This is a way to unite and bring fellow businesses together to proactively protect one another,” said Jason DeLeo, chamber president.

At least two of the five signs are already posted. One is on the east side of Main Street on the corner of Main and Sixth streets. The other is on Piva Equipment Service’s fence along Highway 78, visible to motorists as they enter Ramona from Escondido.

Signs will soon be posted on 10th Street at Town & Country Real Estate, at Daniel’s Liquor on Highway 67, and at a to-be-determined spot in the San Diego Country Estates, said Worden.