| Community Watch |  |
KEEPING PEACE ON THE STREETS - AT 84
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MOST PEOPLE her age would be happy with a potter around in the garden followed by a warm evening in front of the television.
But fiesty great-grandmother Mary Harvey would rather be out prowling the streets looking for trouble.
For the past two years, 84-year-old Mary from Perry Common, has been donning a fluorescent coat and patrolling with other community wardens around the Perry Common estate.
Bubbly Mary said: "There are at least four residents and two community wardens. We meet at 7pm and patrol until 8.30pm.
"I have not apprehended anybody but last Christmas this drunk man shouted obscenities at us. We called the police and he was taken to the cells to cool off. "
Mary, a widow, said she was prompted to act after she grew sick of rampaging yobs ruining her estate.
The mother of two said: "It was horrible. I put up with 12 months of having my windows broken. There wasn't a day when our windows weren't broken.
"It was so bad that the police put a special constable in a darkened room in our house so he could spot who was doing it. But funnily enough it stopped then."
She said: "I decided that I did not want to sit at home and that I would get out and and do it myself. My family told me to take care but did not try and talk me out of it because they know I can take care of myself."
The community wardens soon helped clear up the estate and are warmly greeted by all.
"Young people stop to talk to us and want to join us but they can't until they are 18. They respect the yellow jacket."
"The estate is a lovely place with cul-de-sacs, green spaces and is as safe as we can make it."
Meanwhile Mary has no plans to retire from her duties.
She said: "I will continue doing this as long as I possibly can. I do not suffer from anything and nobody has told me to stop."