TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - The Toledo Police Department hosted a safety day aimed at helping senior citizens Thursday. The event was held at the Liz Pierson Shelter House in Ottawa Park.
Several groups took part in the event, including TPD, the Better Business Bureau and the Ohio Attorney General's Office.
"All these scams that are going on, on the phones, I just get infuriated. The old ones are still working!" said Janet Beam, vice chair of the Toledo-area Block Watch. "You don't leave your house unlocked, go outside and maybe work on your garden. That's not a safe thing."
The Toledo Fire Department was also involved. Firefighter Dennis Kookoothe spoke to the group.
"We want the seniors to be able to live an active life for as long as they can by teaching them to take care of themselves," said Kookoothe. "The rules don't change, the fires don't change, you still have to do what you need to do to stay low and underneath smoke."
The goal is to keep seniors from being easy targets.
"It's important for us to get the word out there, just not to the seniors and ways to protect them, but their friends and their family that live next to them, so they can to have some kind of systems of checks and balances with the seniors to keep them safe," said Lt. Joe Heffernan.
"We got to watch out for each other," said Beam.
"Most of the people we visit don't have any family to check on them, but some of them just like a visit. One man told me, he said 'you people are the light of my life,'" said Beth Veres, Retired Senior Volunteer Patrol.
The department says there was a great turnout this year.
