CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : FRESNO : Residents Hope to Whistle Crime Away

Residents of an apartment complex are ready to blow the whistle on criminals. Police have handed out whistles to all 100 residents of an apartment complex that has been hit by a rash of car thefts. Once residents of the Sequoia Gardens Apartments hear a whistle, they are supposed to open their windows and toot along. “If you start blowing the living daylights out of a whistle, they’re bound to leave,” said apartment manager Leslie Cooper. “But the children need to know it’s not a toy.” Similar projects are planned elsewhere in the Fresno area. “We’ve got requests from all over,” said Deputy Dan Furtney, head of the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department crime prevention unit. “One complex ordered 200, and we’ve got an entire street of people who wanted them for their block.”