to be a nosy neighbor or not??

Which are you, do you peek into the backyards of the neighbors' yards, are you aware of new cars parked on the street, would you notice a person who was not a neighbor?? do you even care?? have you ever looked out of your windows???

In light of the recent bizarre events in Berkely CA with the kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard, I have to wonder, how could neighbors NOT KNOW that three people were living in the backyard??

I am a nosy neighbor, I have been in the same house for 32 years. I know everyone, maybe not by name, but I know all the faces of the folks within 3 or 4 blocks of my house. I know the faces of the kids that live near me, I know the cars. I walk my dogs everyday, it is impossible not to see into my neighbor's yards. I have been walking dogs for 9 years, everyday of the year. What else to do other than look at my neighborhood??. I notice when folks are redoing their kitchens, there are two projects going on right now. The other day, a group of kids were playing on my neighbor's gym set, I quickly saw that they were neighbor kids.

DO I spend all day looking out of window, heck no, but I am out in the yard, I do walk the streets and I do notice. I notice way more than my husband who walks the same streets. He is oblivious to the goings on. But not me, I am the proverbial nosy neighbor. But I think all neighborhoods could use a nosy neighbor or two.

On my evening local news, there was a story about how the neighbors all thwarted a burglary taking place in one of the houses. The neighbors got the guy and held him till the police showed up. When interviewed, the one lady said, " we take care of each other in this neighborhood."

Cheers to this lady and her neighborhood, maybe Jaycee would not have been kept for 18 years with no one seeing or suspecting anything if there had been a nosy neighbor nearby. How could 3 people, two of them children, hide in plain sight for so long?

I am baffled by this, how could neighbors never poke their noses in to see what was going on? I mean, the babies had to cry once in a while. I hear my neighbor's kids when they are crying. But as I said, this lack of any interest in this neighborhood is a crime as well.