Streetlight Angels Podcast

Exploring Hidden Dangers: Dryer Vents, HOA Hurdles, and Building Safer Communities Together!

• Streetlight Angels • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Discover the often-overlooked world of dryer vent cleaning as we welcome Ariel from Dryer Vent Squad to the Streetlight Angels podcast. Ariel takes us on a journey from bustling Dallas to the serene small-town charm of Crestview, where she and her family have built a successful niche business focused on safety and efficiency. Learn why neglecting dryer vent maintenance could be a costly mistake and how Ariel's family-run operation is making a difference along the Emerald Coast.

Facing the challenges of Homeowners Associations (HOAs) can be a test of patience and perseverance. Our conversation sheds light on the complexities of HOA management, from the opaque allocation of fees to inconsistent rule enforcement and favoritism. We discuss the importance of understanding HOA bylaws and balancing the order they bring with the frustrations they sometimes cause. Whether you're a current resident or considering buying in an HOA-regulated area, these insights are invaluable.

Safety and community connection are at the heart of our mission. We share real-life stories of navigating neighborhood safety issues, highlighting the essential role of community awareness and collaboration in protecting our children. From inadequate law enforcement responses to using tech tools like Family Watchdog, we explore ways to foster a supportive environment. Join us in our commitment to creating a safer, united community where children can thrive without fear.

Josh:

Welcome to Streetlight Angels podcast. My name is Josh. I'm one of two hosts. I got Kasey here with me. Kase, what episode are we on?

Kasey:

Episode 8.

Josh:

Episode 8, our second one for the year, actually in 2025. It's been a pretty crazy year. I feel like January just never ends.

Kasey:

I feel like January is trying to kick my butt right now.

Josh:

Somebody said we're on like January 39th right now, or something.

Kasey:

That's what it feels, like it's driving.

Josh:

That being said, we're going to kick off the second episode with our second guest. We have Ariel here with us. Hey, hi, hi, welcome. Yes, I'm excited. Yeah, awesome, awesome. Tell us a little bit about you, ariel, and what you do.

Arielle:

Well, where do we get in there so much? Sure, that's a good thing. Do we want to know all the things I don't know?

Kasey:

Just want to know all the things, all the things.

Arielle:

How much time?

Josh:

do you have? You see, yeah, go for it.

Arielle:

So just the basics. My husband and I live here in Crestview. We own a business Dryer Vent Squad. We clean dryer vents. It's a very niche business and we've got three kiddos we're just entering the teenage life right now so pray for us, you'll make it crowded and dangerous and just not feeling safe.

Arielle:

So we were looking for, like a small town vibe, somewhere we could raise the kids in a little bit slower paced environment and somewhere we could start a business and thrive. And we ended up in Crestview and we love it here. I feel like it's the perfect city for that. It's been awesome Like. I know a lot of people hate on Crestview, but we just love it. Yeah, I feel like it was meant to be.

Josh:

From Dallas to the village of Crestview.

Arielle:

Yeah, I call this place a village. Yeah, village, family, big change, that's huge it changes everything.

Josh:

That's insane. Yeah, oh my gosh, it's a little bit different here. It's a. It's strange for sure.

Arielle:

Good different.

Josh:

What's the name of your company again?

Arielle:

It's Dryer Vent Squads. Dryer Vent Squads.

Josh:

So you clean.

Arielle:

Dryer vents. That is what we do. Super cool, it's very niche, it's wild. I didn't even know that and it's needed.

Kasey:

It's definitely needed.

Josh:

I've never heard of this, ever. That's super cool.

Arielle:

I didn't even know it needed to be done.

Josh:

Right, yeah, I'm pretty sure I bet what does it do, like prevent fires, I'm sure.

Arielle:

We prevent fires and really it just makes your dryer more efficient. Your vent gets so clogged that you clean out the lint portion of your dryer. Every time you do a load right and there's a ton of lint, there's more than that in your dryer vent and eventually your clothes take like three, four cycles to dry. And then you clean out your vent and it's drying in one cycle, Like really.

Kasey:

Like who knew it's got to be more cost efficient too, especially on the energy bill, and maybe saving the life of your dryer, yeah, not to mention the fire. Yeah, a lot of house fires are started from the dryer, sure Like lint.

Arielle:

I don't know if you've ever thrown lint into a fire, yeah, but it's like a little bomb went off, and so, if you can imagine one little spark in your house, that's usually my go-to when we do our fire pit.

Kasey:

Yeah, when I have nothing else to help me start my Some like lint kindling.

Josh:

Absolutely If you get the lint from your dryer and put that in there.

Kasey:

It sets everything off.

Josh:

That's good stuff.

Kasey:

Yeah.

Arielle:

How long ago did you start this, so we've been in business for about three years. Three years. We're just coming up on three now. Okay, wow.

Josh:

And you have a website. I'm assuming we do. What's the website?

Arielle:

The website is it'll be driereventsquadcom backslash Emerald Coast.

Josh:

Backslash Emerald Coast and you do the whole panhandle. Or are you just kind of local Pretty?

Arielle:

much, yeah, and then to Cola, all the way to like Panama City.

Josh:

Okay, that's amazing. Yeah, we're all over. Good, good, good stuff. And is that his full-time job, your husband's?

Arielle:

To both of our full-time jobs.

Josh:

It is yes, what's up Okay?

Arielle:

Yeah, so he's out working on garments all day long and I'm in the office doing all the other things.

Josh:

Nice, okay, cool, cool, he's the one pushing Answering all the calls.

Arielle:

So if you call, you'll get me on the phone. Nice, all right.

Josh:

That's interesting. Honestly, my neighborhood had that vent cleaning for ACs not too long ago and the neighborhood it was kind of like a group deal, right for the neighborhood. And then they came and they cleaned it, which they did what they were supposed to do for the price that we had expected, but added all these extras that they were trying to quote us on and it ended up being like two thousand dollars of a quote and I said you guys are crazy, because I was only trying to get my vents clean for 200 bucks and then now you're throwing a two thousand dollar price tag at me. So I can't imagine that cleaning a dryer vent would be anything like that no, actually our pricing is pretty easy.

Arielle:

It's 169 to 199, depending on the length and direction of your vent. And that's not bad at all. It's not bad. We take about an hour to an hour and a half. So a lot of AC companies will add on like a dryer vent cleaning for $49.

Josh:

Sure.

Arielle:

But they're not actually cleaning your vent. We try to tell people they're not cleaning your vent. Right, they might be hooking up a blower to your vent or something Like we're actually cleaning the extent of your lip.

Josh:

Wow.

Arielle:

Okay, From beginning to end, you do inside the dryer all of that. So it's really a niche thing?

Josh:

Yes, it is Well. I think it needs to be educated some more.

Kasey:

Yes, absolutely.

Josh:

So hopefully this episode brings out a little bit of awareness on that, because me I'm ignorant.

Kasey:

I don't think I've ever cleaned a dryer in my life, honestly, and now you've got all the spring cleaning coming up, so it's the perfect time to start to really market that and educate people.

Josh:

Plus, that back air probably puts those germs back into the house and people are constantly getting sick in their houses. We're not going to talk about that.

Arielle:

Any kind of cleanliness might help a lot of people.

Josh:

Oh yeah, oh oh yeah, I learned it. Yeah, so there we go.

Kasey:

Okay, I love how everybody got quiet when I pushed the button so we could hear that.

Josh:

That's like we were anticipating it. All right, so that that's awesome. Uh, ariel, and we appreciate that I'm gonna have to check you out what's the website one more time the website is dry.

Arielle:

Event squadcom backslash Emerald Coast.

Josh:

Okay All right, so backslash Emerald Coast. Good deal, and I'm sure we can find you on social media and stuff like that, right, yeah, anything.

Arielle:

Yeah, we're on all of it.

Josh:

All right, awesome, and so you know you're doing this type of company which is essentially helping the people. I mean, if a fire happens because of a spark of some lint in a dryer in one house, it's definitely going to affect the other houses in the neighborhood probably. So you know what I mean. You've got HOAs that are probably constantly digging into. You know better ways to make sure that the neighborhood stays safe and things like that. So do you have an HOA?

Arielle:

We do have an HOA.

Josh:

Yeah, you do.

Arielle:

Yeah, we intentionally purchased in an HOA just to protect our property value and the safety of the community.

Josh:

HOAs are crazy. Like I know, I pay a pretty penny for my HOA and I don't really honestly out of the amount of houses we have in the neighborhood and if they're paying the exact same price I am, which I'm sure they are I'm constantly trying to figure and rack my brain as to where this money is going sure they are. I am constantly trying to figure and rack my brain as to where this money is going, and they're never transparent as far as letting us actually see.

Josh:

you know the transactions that are being made throughout the year, which you know. I've got a meeting coming up soon. I'm going to shed light on that and say I want to see where that money's going. Do you guys have that same problem?

Arielle:

We do. I mean we can get the financials because legally they do have to share with you, because the HOA is an association of everybody in the community. So you may have a president, a vice president, but the HOA is all of the homeowners together, you're all a part of it, and so you all have money into it and you all have say over where those funds go.

Josh:

I got it. My parents hate HOAs with a passion. They will look for neighborhoods when they move from one place to another and try to find one that does not have an HOA or is not intrusive.

Arielle:

You know what?

Josh:

I mean. But in the same token you kind of got to appreciate them if they're doing what they're supposed to be doing, Like my neighborhood does. As far as keeping everybody guy, you guys have a decent name.

Arielle:

I would say it's a struggle in our neighborhood.

Josh:

Is it?

Arielle:

Yeah, we've struggled with our HOA.

Josh:

Um, I feel, like, Like what do you mean? Struggle, Like what do you mean? Like what's problems?

Arielle:

So the problems that we're seeing are you know, we've got our bylaws. Every HOA has bylaws and you know, you need to keep your grass cut, you need to have a fence, you need to. You know, don't park in the front yard, don't put your cars on cinder blocks, no trash in the front yard. And so we've just seen all of those things done in our hoa community.

Josh:

Those things are happening, and they're not being fixed, they're not, nobody's being held accountable.

Kasey:

Nobody's being held accountable some families are being held accountable, where others are not and it doesn't make any sense.

Josh:

There's no it doesn't feel like it's very. Yes, I feel like really it's very.

Kasey:

Yeah, there's no clear-cut black and white. Yeah, rules for everyone.

Josh:

It's well, this family may have well, that's where the bylaws come in. You could absolutely you should be able to look at that black and white, right and and then be able to essentially put a copy of that with a highlighted section, into their mailbox and say fix or repercussions are going to be happening. You know what?

Arielle:

I mean.

Josh:

That's how it should be right.

Arielle:

Yes, that's how it should be, and very recently our HOA is kind of trying to get it together and they're just now sending out some fine letters and highlighting the bylaws for people, and so I'm hoping to see some change here soon. But up until this point, you know, it's been about three years.

Josh:

Sure.

Arielle:

It's been, I would say, a hot mess. Wow, oh my gosh.

Josh:

Yeah, that's unfortunate. I remember my neighbor had a boat parked out front for a little while and the HOA came in strong. Like you better get because you get. You know 24 hours is the max you can get for having anything other than your own cars in the front.

Kasey:

I think ours is something similar to that, yeah.

Josh:

And he had it there for a couple of days. They were lenient, lenient and then they came. Everybody came in strong. We got our own Facebook, hoa Facebook group. So a lot of people are calling each other out. We're kind of taking care of each other. You know what I mean In a sense to you know what I mean. Like I'm not going to call you out on this, but I do know who you are, because we all got rings or we got something so don't make me put your face on this group chat you know what I mean, that type thing.

Josh:

Cause, it will cause you will you know, and rightfully so. Like if I, if I'm walking my dog, and they crap in your yard, like I already feel guilty, I'm already looking at my dog, like it, like, not this yard, you know what I mean. Like exactly exactly, but they do, and so you.

Kasey:

You take care of it as a respectable human being in society. Yes, yes well and it's like it's. It's almost like trying to police a bunch of children.

Arielle:

Yes, yeah, I feel like sad, sad some adults that yeah one of the things I struggle with with hoa are people in our community that are not following rules is, when you purchase a home, like the bylaws are there for you. Let's read them and see can we, are we okay with not having a trailer? Yeah, in our front yard? Are we okay with that?

Josh:

Yeah.

Arielle:

And if you're not, don't buy the house, right.

Josh:

Right.

Arielle:

So these people are kicking and screaming like I didn't read them, so I don't know.

Kasey:

Well, that's your fault, that's your fault Self-induced yeah.

Arielle:

Because, I read it probably 20 times before I was like can I follow these? Yeah, I can, I'm okay with that.

Josh:

Right, yeah, yeah, you know, yeah, and it's difficult because there are some things on there that I'm like, yeah, absolutely Like, how dare them tell me? I got to pay for one of these guys to come in and, you know, give me permission to put a shed in the backyard, type stuff. That bothers me with a passion, because I'm the one paying, I'm the one paying my rent, I'm the one paying all this stuff, including their HOA, but then now I got to pay them extra for them to come and inspect and make sure I meet whatever requirement they think I need to meet, like that's the weight balance.

Josh:

Yeah, because it's your property, exactly it is.

Kasey:

But on the flip side of that, your idea of the proper shed might not be your neighbor's idea.

Josh:

Sure Proper shed Exactly.

Kasey:

That's where we have to understand that everything's not so clear cut with everybody's mentality and processing, because where you may pay thousands of dollars for a nice shed that's going to be enclosed and look good, your neighbor might try to put up some two by fours and some metal tin or something that's going to look like garbage.

Josh:

Right.

Kasey:

And then it just it looks it's not uniform and it looks trashy in the neighborhood. And then it depreciates the value of the neighborhood, absolutely, people trying to sell houses right, and we're finding that out.

Josh:

Yes, yeah, that's what's happening in your neighborhood. Nobody can sell or buy houses.

Arielle:

No, houses are not moving. People are trying to maybe rent them, just to mediate that a little bit, because they cannot sell.

Kasey:

They can't sell. One has gone into foreclosure.

Josh:

Two have gone into foreclosure.

Kasey:

We've got one that has. We've had anywhere from five to eight houses for sale that have just sat.

Josh:

Oh, my gosh. Nothing For a very long time.

Arielle:

Yes.

Kasey:

And we have wonderful people in the neighborhood.

Arielle:

We really do. We have a great neighborhood. We have beautiful homes. Yes, they're all new.

Kasey:

No homes are over the older side of the neighborhood. Yeah, but in our area no house is over four years old yet.

Josh:

So it's all brand new houses and they're already becoming foreclosures and things like that. Yes, oh my gosh, that's insane.

Arielle:

And I think part of the reason for that is when you go to buy a house. Like what do you do? You research the neighborhood, right? Sure and so maybe you take a drive, if you can. We talked about this.

Kasey:

Yeah.

Arielle:

Yeah, and if you drive around my neighborhood, there are some houses that you might think, ooh, I think maybe unsafe people live there.

Josh:

Really yes, some like meth heads and.

Arielle:

Yeah, really, absolutely. Ew, that's gross, yeah, it's terrifying.

Josh:

Yeah, that's ridiculous and it kind of makes you I don't know. I remember back in the day I don't think there was ever this issue or this weird feeling about who lives where, because we monitor ourselves even without an HOA Right. Which brings up. You know how well do you know your neighbors right.

Kasey:

Yeah Well, and with that too, Ariel and I were just talking a day or two ago that normally you'll case out a neighborhood, but when a neighborhood is brand new, there's nothing to drive around, you don't see all these families, everyone's buying at the same time. So you have all these different personalities and ways of life, which we welcome. Different, various cultures and groups and all the things we love diversity. But when you get such diversity with morals and values and life compasses, it's hard to coexist.

Arielle:

It is, it's very hard to coexist where, which is why an hoa is important it because it kind of just outlines. We all agree that this is how we're going to live, at least on the outside, yes, and whatever you do inside of your home is your business, but on the outside, let's all just. Let's just. Yeah, let's keep it Neutral.

Kasey:

Yeah, a happy village, happy village.

Arielle:

Yeah.

Josh:

I heard a saying yesterday which I haven't heard in a long time it takes a village to raise a child.

Kasey:

It does.

Josh:

You know what I mean, and so we've lost that. That's long gone here in these days.

Kasey:

I don't know. Some of us have it. I have a village. I have my village too. Ariel is part of my village.

Josh:

How well do you know your neighbors?

Kasey:

Well, I know Ariel.

Josh:

Sure In the whole neighborhood.

Kasey:

Well, that and that's going to take us even more to an interesting topic in just a second. But my village isn't. They're not my neighbors, they're my friends in my community. So I've created my village is like a jellyfish. I have long reaches in the community where I have different people that I know Like right now if we weren't doing this podcast. I've called you for an emergency before and said, oh my gosh, this is happening. Can you help me? And you're at my house within minutes. Yeah, and I've done the for an emergency before. Yeah, and said, oh my gosh, this is happening. Can you help me? And you're at my house within minutes.

Arielle:

Yeah, and I've done the same to you, yeah.

Josh:

That is awesome to have you know onesie, twosies, but I feel like when I was a kid it was everybody in the neighborhood looked out for each other.

Arielle:

Everybody, it's definitely different.

Josh:

Yeah, I don't have that. It's definitely different that, like we just people just knew each other, yeah, and and it wasn't vindictive, it was we knew each other because we knew we needed to talk to each other about certain situations. We need to, we would need to rely on each other and stuff like that. But you just I feel like that's gone. You maybe have one or two yes, but it's gone.

Arielle:

Yeah, one or two, one or two and my kids definitely have like, if there's an emergency, go to this house, this house or this house, but nobody else. Sure you know?

Josh:

do you have, like you know, anybody you're like? Look at, you know you're driving through the neighborhood. You got anybody you're like? Oh man, I wish, uh wish, we could have like a screening process before we allowed people to move into our own neighborhood across the street.

Arielle:

Really, you got some. I have a front row seat to some, some weirdos. Oh, that's unfortunate unfortunately in our neighborhood we've had you had owners move out that cannot sell their houses.

Josh:

Yeah.

Arielle:

And across the street. They were not able to sell their house and now we have a squatter situation.

Josh:

Really.

Arielle:

Yeah.

Josh:

That should be illegal though, yeah, and with an HOA it should be taken care of.

Arielle:

Yeah, really I figured Thanks with an HOA should be taken care of. Yeah, really, I don't think so, yeah, so interesting thing about this house is we moved in three years ago and when we pulled up after signing the papers, we're so excited. We looked at this, the house, across the street and we were like why do they have a couch on their front porch? We're in an HOA community. That's not allowed.

Josh:

Right.

Arielle:

They'll take care of it, no worries sure so um the couch stayed. My kids lovingly call this place the couch house no way, it's still there so very recently it was removed oh my gosh um, but it was replaced with many other things mattresses no way beds no rash. So we've we've struggled for three years with this house and um the biggest issue I have with this house is that in our bylaws and our H-8 bylaws, you are not allowed to rent out individual rooms in your home, but no subleasing. They have always done this.

Josh:

And they're doing that in the house there.

Kasey:

Well no, they're not.

Arielle:

They're not subleasing.

Kasey:

They're definitely squatting for free now.

Arielle:

The squatters came from, subleasing though they, they all Squatting for free now.

Josh:

The squatters came from subleasing, though.

Arielle:

They all had a room in the house.

Josh:

We've had people in and out constantly, so who owns the house?

Arielle:

The person that owns the house doesn't live in the States anymore.

Josh:

So they're renting the house.

Kasey:

No, he just let it go into foreclosure oh.

Josh:

I see what the heck.

Kasey:

That's crazy yeah with that, if they're not renting, who takes care of the power, the electricity, who has?

Arielle:

the rights to do all that. They don't have power Okay.

Josh:

No way, they don't have water, no.

Kasey:

So how are we taking care of natural, human basic things? How's that? I don't know, it's got to be interesting.

Arielle:

You know I try to love my neighbors right, we should all love our neighbors and I try really hard to just be friendly and loving towards them, because that's what I want to be. And they do ask for water, they ask for things from people around us and if it's a basic human need I will provide. But I can't help but wonder like is this right? Because you're stealing.

Josh:

You're stealing shelter, would you think that in any way that's enabling them?

Arielle:

Yes, I do, and I battle with that Like what's the right thing to do?

Josh:

That's right.

Arielle:

Because they have children in that house. They have a three-year-old and nine-month-old and they don't have water and electricity and electricity and it just snowed here not too long ago.

Josh:

They must have been freezing. Yes, holy cow, probably building like little miniature fires inside this house, and this house is only four years old.

Arielle:

Yeah.

Josh:

Oh my gosh. Ok see, that's a problem.

Arielle:

It's a huge problem Like what do I do? That's, I would love an answer to what. What do we do? Because I have called and asked for help from many different really places and ask for help from many different places.

Josh:

I know there's people listening to our podcast that could easily pipe in and say hey, this is exactly what you need to do so. If you are one of the listeners that know or have ever dealt with this, go ahead in the links or in the comments and let us know so we can help Ariel out with the situation you know.

Arielle:

So, this is going to take a little bit of a turn.

Arielle:

So this is going to take a little bit of a turn and I know you've had some interesting stuff come up with this, and you had I and out of this house, we never know who they are, right, right. And unfortunately we got a small view into what's actually going on in that house and we had a sheriff knock on our door and say have you seen this man? They show us a photo and you know, yeah, we've seen him. He comes in and out.

Kasey:

And this is one of the tenants that's squatting in this house.

Arielle:

Yeah, and he's not always there. It's just kind of a in and out when needs be. I guess I don't really know the situation, but we do know him or know of him. We see him and she let us know that he was wanted for inappropriate behavior with a teenage girl Okay, in another state. And so we kind of like are my kids safe? No, no, they're not. It's the answer. No, they're not.

Arielle:

No, kids are safe now no, but unfortunately this is not the first time something like this has happened. So, um, a couple years ago the people in there were being charged with trafficking and um, at one point my daughter was walking across the street to her friend's house and I normally watch her walk Like I've never felt safe letting my kids walk to the neighbors Right. So she went out ahead of me and I was like I'll be out in a second to watch you the rest of the way. And she ran back in and said mom, these people are trying to get me in a car.

Arielle:

No way, yes, they're trying to get me and my friend into a car, and so I called the police, like please help me, and we gave them a description of the vehicle, of the people inside everything, and they said what do you want me to do? And I said I don't know Like what do we do?

Josh:

Why are they asking you what they're supposed to be doing?

Arielle:

Yeah and I said can you make a report or something Like something's going to happen at some point. I want documentation. And they said, said, we don't really do that. And my thought is like, as soon as something does happen, as soon as my kid is stolen, you're gonna do something then so do we have to be reactive?

Kasey:

why don't we be proactive?

Josh:

exactly yes and this is obviously one of those situations that's gonna gonna be a reactive situation something bad's gonna happen. They're gonna be like, oh crap. Meanwhile, look at all these triggers and all these like things that are popping up, that just are flags, that are just shoving in our face and yet nothing's being done, right Well?

Kasey:

and, interestingly enough, that happened with my children we just talked about. I think we talked about this other day where I had an SUV that cased my house for two weeks. My autistic daughter noticed the vehicle, knew that the vehicle did not live in our subdivision and was trying to tell me in her own way that somebody was watching her and even recording them. And then the day that they tried to go into my house my neighbors saw screamed.

Kasey:

Thank goodness, oh my God, I would have lost my mind and the people ran and got back in the car and left really quickly. We called the police as well and they wanted to pretend like they were solar panel people and it's like, and the cop literally looked at me and said well, what do you want me to do? I said did you investigate that they're actual employees, Because I already have solar panels.

Arielle:

Right.

Kasey:

And my neighbors don't. So the fact that the people ran was ridiculous to me. Does that not give?

Arielle:

you a red flag, as I as an officer of the law yeah, automatically guilty.

Kasey:

No, I didn't have I didn't have any reason to question them further. What do you want me to do?

Josh:

and I, I was like I don't know your job, then I would say something like okay, well then, I need a statement from you as your, as a police officer, stating that you're you're not following this any further yeah you know what I mean. It's scary it is, and I think again we need to hold them accountable, just as yeah, maybe, but again I want, I want documentation saying that they can't do anything well as a parent it is.

Kasey:

It creates so much anxiety because we've not only had one house in the neighborhood known for trafficking, there were two, and so they're gone now. Thank goodness, but one down. It is scary, it is so scary yeah and then it for me personally, my anxiety. I'm like well, I track their phones, but what happens if they were to drop their phone? Should I put an air tag in every shoe? What do you do?

Arielle:

Yeah, I've actually thought about that.

Josh:

I've thought about sewing an air tag into my kids' shoes. We have them, we have them.

Arielle:

My kids have air tags.

Josh:

We did.

Arielle:

Did you sew them into their shoes, not into?

Josh:

the shoes, but I have them. My kids have air tags. We did. Did you sew them into their shoes? Not into the shoes, but I have them someplace.

Kasey:

I'm not going to say where they're at. No, maybe we can talk about that.

Josh:

But Larissa would kill me if I said where we located these.

Kasey:

No, I would like to know.

Josh:

And they know about it too. You know what I mean, and so they know to hold those things dear to them if something happens, but them if something happens, and so, but how sad is that, to where we even got to think about that kind of stuff.

Arielle:

You know what?

Josh:

I mean it's horrible, but the awareness, the educational piece to the children is pinnacle. So you can, we can, as parents, you know, have anxiety attacks about it or do what we need to do as adult, but ultimately, you know the children need to have that educational piece to where they know what to do just as much as us so in your case.

Arielle:

I'm sure you've told your kids like scream, hoot, holler.

Josh:

I don't care what you do, throw rocks.

Arielle:

Yeah.

Josh:

Do whatever you got to do to get to wherever you need to go. That's in a safe place again.

Arielle:

Yeah.

Josh:

But that's what we want to rely on our neighbor. Unfortunately, your neighbors are the problem. You know what I mean, which is disgusting to me because I don't know how. I've never had myself in a situation to where I you know, it's been personal to me on that scope.

Josh:

But if it was, I feel like I'd probably be sitting in jail already for doing something that I shouldn't have done, just because of the things that aren't currently being done by the authorities, right, and so if we can hold the authorities accountable, to hold those neighbors or this squat house essentially accountable, then it's going to be what it's supposed to be, how our neighborhood is supposed to be.

Kasey:

Right, well, and with that too, you would think that we've also spoken about this. You guys have thought about selling your house. I've thought about selling my house because of the issues there. The good people will either fight to weed out the bad, or the good people will leave and the bad will overtake.

Josh:

And that's essentially flicking the booger.

Kasey:

Yes.

Josh:

You know what I mean I love that yeah. Someone else has to deal with that. You know what I mean. I love that. Yeah, someone else has to deal with that. You know what I mean. And it could be the next family that comes in from overseas that has to buy a house sight unseen.

Arielle:

Yeah.

Josh:

You know what I mean. And then they buy the house, they move in, and now their child got, you know, assaulted.

Kasey:

Yeah, absolutely, and that's what I feel like the HOA needs to take into HOA and the law.

Josh:

The law Law enforcement needs to take into accountability they do.

Kasey:

Which we know that there are laws in place and I know that we've talked about. They can't go in the house and there are certain laws that they do have to follow, right For a reason. For a reason, because we're not. This has to be an equal balance justice system across the board.

Josh:

So if they can't, go into that house.

Kasey:

That means they can't just walk into mine or your house.

Josh:

Right now.

Kasey:

So it's there are gray areas where I feel like we should have some shading where we could get somewhere.

Josh:

So yeah, and you do. It's just we got to educate ourselves more on it. What do you tell your family? What do you some more on it? What do you tell your family? What do you tell your kids? What do you tell your girls?

Arielle:

you know what I mean you know I have spent way too much time educating them and sometimes I wonder, like am I creating anxiety for them?

Arielle:

and I kind of am in a way which breaks my heart, but I also can't, as a mom, not protect them with information right and so, um, we have the conversation of if somebody were to take you, you kick, you scream, you don't stop Because at some point they don't want to deal with you. You make it so they don't want to deal with you. But there is a I'll have to try and find the YouTube video for you but they interview inmates and ask them what they looked for in their victims.

Kasey:

I've never thought about that.

Arielle:

It's very interesting. But one of the big things was they will not take a child if the parent can ID them. So I intentionally meet everybody that comes into the house. I make eye contact with them and I try to do it in loving ways. I try to bring them water, give them something. Okay, you know I'm not here to judge everybody's life and how they got there.

Arielle:

I don't know why they're there, but I will make sure I can see your eyes and I ID you and I feel like in a way that protects them. But I tell the kids like you need to make eye contact too. Yes, you need to make sure that they know that you can ID them, and that makes them much less appealing. The other thing is, if they're alone, a lot that's very appealing to the criminal Sure. So my kids are not allowed to be outside by themselves.

Josh:

See Same Body system and that's our biggest problem.

Arielle:

Yeah.

Josh:

The Streetlight Angels podcast is built around why we can't let our kids go outside and play until the streetlights come on. It is yeah why we can't let our kids go outside and play until the streetlights come on yeah. Without us being up their butts. Yeah, you know what I mean, or you know? Worrying about them constantly or tracking them.

Kasey:

Well, and to piggyback off of what you just said too, because I am a single parent and I can't pull into my garage, so you know when I'm home and when I'm not, my vehicle is either there or it's not.

Kasey:

Yes, so I will have people and friends move their car into my driveway and I'll let people use my driveway and park there to give it the illusion. And you don't know when I have a friend visiting, you don't know when somebody's just parked in my driveway, you don't know if I've let somebody. The educational piece that I've realized is to not keep a consistent schedule, to change things up so that you don't look so predictable?

Josh:

Absolutely, yeah, they say that all the time. Change directions. They teach us that in the military. We never have the same mundane route.

Arielle:

Thankfully, with kids that's fairly easy.

Josh:

Thank God, dain route. Thankfully, with kids that's fairly easy, yeah, but unfortunately, to have your child, or anybody's child or your children or even mine, to know that I won't let them go outside unless I'm with them or unless their mom's with them is, is growing them into a fearful. It's the nature versus nurture type thing. Yeah, so the nature of it is they're growing now into a fearful environment and they're literally building the foundation of them as children into fear, and I hate that with a passion.

Arielle:

I can't stand it.

Josh:

That's why we started this podcast is to bring in shed light to that. The subject obviously is a little harder. I need the commenters to get in there and talk about you know their issues and, if they had issues in the past that have been resolved, how they got to those points and things like that to help better educate ourselves on what to do, what we can do, what our options are. That's the hardest part is like am I allowed to go over there and you know, bring my pistol and say you ever look at my kid again.

Josh:

I'm going to. You know what I mean. We're going to have problems essentially. Or you know, if I call the cops, they're going to say sorry, there's nothing we can do. Like what? Where is? How do we get to the end point where we actually have the solution preemptively? Not a proactive oh, now my kid's dead. Are you guys going to come do something?

Arielle:

We Right Right.

Josh:

Where we don't want that crap. You know that's what this podcast is about. A lot, A huge reason as to why we, you know, have these guest speakers and we talk about these very versatile and sometimes dark subjects is so that we can bring awareness and start getting the answers that we need and the traction Absolutely To get things done Right.

Kasey:

Yeah, well, it gives an outreach. Right it gives a bigger outreach and gives us a larger voice, because I feel like the squeaky wheel.

Josh:

So HOA, do their jobs. They need to do their jobs. Neighbors, start getting to know your neighbors. Learn them a lot better. If you're a podcast listener and you're listening to this, what is wrong with you hitting up your neighbor five houses down and that you've never seen?

Josh:

and just be like hey, I just want to introduce myself you know what I mean and just start building those relationships again. That's what we need to do, so that you know we can let our kids go out. And then it should shed awareness on who the neighbor is to, where they're not supposed to be there, or this is not a neighbor you know should be ticking lightly. You know that kind of thing. So there's awesome apps out there that talk about pieces of crap that have been pieces of crap in the past but now have gone through the digital system and now back into the street, which they may have been absolutely wonderful now and they may be the best people in the entire world. However, once labeled, you always are. It's something that needs to be aware of, and there's apps out there that tell us. You know a couple apps, right?

Kasey:

Yes, I have them pulled up right now, actually, and, and those people that that do have those specific labels, they will, to my knowledge, forever have rules that they still have to follow yeah, forever, until forever, yeah so you know they're very well traffickers, anything that has to do with that stuff like.

Josh:

But there's apps out there that kind of help you right.

Kasey:

So the top five that I have pulled up are Family Watchdog, home Facts, offender, radar, city Protect and Spot Crime. But it also goes over. You can look up even locally in your area National Sex Offender Registry, state and local law enforcement should be able to educate people as well. Should be able to Call your local law enforcement and just inquire about the area, the community, the neighborhood, the people, and then there are community alerts out there. So Facebook groups, just getting yourself networked into those places to educate yourself.

Josh:

Yeah, Utilize the resource right.

Kasey:

Yes.

Josh:

Utilize them and then also hold the resources accountable.

Arielle:

Yeah.

Josh:

You know what I mean and make sure they're doing what they're supposed to do Because clearly, like I said, it's reactive. They're like I don't want to deal with it unless it's already happened and then, they're like I probably could have done something. And then, oh my gosh, what a snowball effect, right?

Kasey:

Well, we're not trying to ruin anybody's life either. We're not trying to educate so that people are called out in communities, especially people that have changed their lives, that are trying to be to try to be on that straight and narrow and do better for themselves. What we're trying to do is just educate our families so that our kids are safer.

Arielle:

Yeah, that's right. So that's right. And for these people that are struggling, squatters particularly, there are programs in our community to help them. Yes, there are. So my question to them is why are you not utilizing the programs? You know like you could be in a better situation. You could have water, you could have electric. Yes, why don't you have that? Well and how can we help you?

Kasey:

absolutely, because I will help you. Unsanitary, yeah, it's not just unsanitary for them, it's unsanitary for our community we need to fix this.

Josh:

We're going to do it. We're not going to talk about it anymore. We're actually going to to pull some stuff. I have some decent connections. I'll start making some some phone. We're not going to allow this to happen any further. I promise you I will do what now. You know, obviously what I can.

Josh:

And with the podcast itself, it should at least shed a lot more light on it to say, even if it's not just the neighborhood that you're living in, ariel, or you're living in case, there's other neighborhoods, I'm sure that are out there that are just as bad, if not worse yeah and they need to take care of that, or else we're never going to get to how we used to be, with the children going outside and playing until the streetlights come on right so, yeah, and this is going to be an outrage and and I want to thank you for opening up and thank you for feeling comfortable enough to yeah, to do this because I know that this is.

Kasey:

It's a little scary to share and speak publicly.

Arielle:

But to be honest, after three years. I'm like you know, yeah, we can just talk about it and get the ball rolling.

Josh:

That's right.

Arielle:

Like, cause I've? I've just hit roadblock after roadblock, you know here, and so let's try something different. That's right.

Josh:

Yeah, let's get it out there, it's the squeaky wheels getting that grease and we're going to squeak like a mother, so don't even sweat it. I love it. Ariel, thank you so much for being on the show with us.

Arielle:

Thank you for having me.

Josh:

It's been great. This is Streetlight Angels podcast, Casey. Where can they find us?

Kasey:

They can find us on Facebook Streetlight Angels. Please open up comment. We also have an email that you guys can hit us up at if you want to be more anonymous StreetlightAngelsPodcast at gmailcom. We'd love to hear from you guys. We'd love to help in any way that we can. We try to shed light on topics in the communities where we can keep our kids safer, and we are all about trying to pull together to create our villages.

Josh:

Heck yeah, let's get the family village back together how it used to be. We love you all and we want everybody to be safe. Take care now.