100-year-old man dedicates life to keeping his neighbors safe

Reporter: Taylor Petras
Published: Updated:
Once a month, residents in the Sandpiper Key neighborhood will see Marty Geraghty on patrol for the night watch.

Once a month, residents in the Sandpiper Key neighborhood will see Marty Geraghty and his daughter on patrol for the night watch.

“We check the pools and make sure there’s nobody in the pool after dark,” said neighborhood watch member Geraghty. “We check all the lights in the place.”

He’s checking for any lights that have burnt out and he’s on the lookout for any suspicious activity.

“It cuts down a lot of nuisances,” Geraghty said. “I mean, we can’t cover everything, but basically the fact that people know that we have some security here.”

At 100-years-old, he’s the oldest neighborhood watch member in Charlotte County.

But Geraghty says that’s nothing new.

“I’m the oldest of everything,” Geraghty said.

Having lived in the neighborhood for nearly 30 years makes him an ideal watch member.

“He knows where something isn’t quite right, he knows who’s coming in, who’s coming out who might need a little extra assistance,” said neighborhood watch member Linda Barich. “He’s just real valuable.”

Even the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office agree that the best people to join the neighborhood watch are the residents themselves.

“Who better to know what’s going on inside of a neighborhood than the people that actually live there,” said Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Louis Henyecz. “So they are the eyes and ears for the sheriff’s department.”

CCSO says those eyes and ears, no matter how old, are critical to keeping crime down.

“He is just a great guy,” Henyecz said. “He wants to help out. He wants to look out for his fellow neighbors and residents that are out here.”

According to Geraghty, he’s not the only resident looking out for the Sandpiper Key neighborhood.

“I’m very, very lucky that we found this place because everybody kind of looks out for everybody else,” Geraghty said.

The sheriff’s office says there are about 65 active neighborhood watch groups in Charlotte County. Geraghty’s is one of the first that was started.

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