It's hard to imagine someone so worried about crime in Stonington Borough that they would stock pepper spray in their waterfront home and consider purchasing a stunning device.

"We intend to buy it and let police know we have it," Reba and David Williams of Water Street wrote recently about pepper spray on their blog, www.rebadave.com. "We will not hesitate to use it on anyone who intrudes in our space, or otherwise threatens us, either in or outside our house or property."

I will admit to being a bit startled to read about people who confess elsewhere in the blog to living part of the year in Manhattan, Greenwich, London and Palm Springs being so worried about crime here in Stonington.

The Williamses paid $2.75 million for their borough house in 2007 and then extensively rebuilt it, including the addition of what appears from the street to be a security system with cameras. They bought the house across the street, to use as a guest house, for $590,000 in 2009.

That part of Stonington Borough doesn't seem like a neighborhood with a lot of obvious crime, and yet the Williamses continue to prepare.

"We are also tightening the security of the house. We hear alarming stories about intruders," they wrote on their blog. "We are also considering additional weapons. We've learned that a stunning device is legal if you keep it in the home or on your property and register it with police."

Of course, when you combine the exhibitionist nature of some blog writing with the gossip factor of a small town, words travel quickly.

I saw a link to the Williamses' blog going around town that had a warning in the email keyword that the couple is now armed.

Indeed, the Williamses indicate in their blog that they've had a rocky transition to life in Stonington, fighting with one neighbor, a lawyer, over his threat to take some land by adverse possession, and finding some Stonington charities generally unworthy of their donations.

In fact, they suggest they may already be contemplating moving on.

"We have had letters from people around the country offering their help with our problems and suggesting we try another community," they wrote in a blog entry entitled "Are We Bad Neighbors?"

"They tell us that we'd be considered excellent citizens anywhere else. That sounds like a pleasant change, and we are contemplating that alternative, much as we love our house, garden and the cottage across the way."

I suggested an interview with the couple in an email, but Reba Williams wrote back this week to say that they are in California and "out of touch" with Stonington issues.

Both the Williamses attended Harvard Business School and had successful Wall Street careers, according to résumés posted on their Web sites. They also spent many years collecting art prints and in 2008 donated their extensive collection to the National Gallery in Washington.

They write a lot about their philosophy of philanthropy and disclose, for instance, that they once made a "six figure" donation for the building of a new animal shelter in Greenwich.

In Stonington, though, they write about the frustrations of making donations to local charities and suggest they won't be giving any more money around here.

"In Stonington, we've had difficulties finding projects we want to support. The work of the Stonington Historical Society doesn't interest us. We have contributed to it in the past, via their annual benefit, but we don't plan to attend that again. (As mentioned in a previous note, we support the Greenwich Historical Society, where we find their projects up to date and attractive.)"

The Williamses said they gave some money for the building of a Stonington animal shelter, but plan no more since "the borough found money to finance it without future help from us."

They said they gave to a program for cats in the borough but "have not been kept up to date on the organization's accomplishments, plans etc. ... so have not continued our support."

They said they gave money to the restoration of the cannons in Cannon Square, in part because the square is near their house, and they encourage that philosophy for others in Stonington.

"We'd like to see more refurbishing and beautification of the borough, especially in the neighborhood where we live, or places we frequently visit," they wrote. "We think that those who live in other areas should support beautification in their neighborhoods.

"We also think that many organizations in Stonington should be supported by year-round people, not summer people, since their programming and activities don't seem to benefit the summer people."

Once you start reading this stuff, it's hard to look away. It's like passing a car wreck.

One thing the Williamses seem to have right.

It seems like they are happier everywhere else they live than in Stonington, presumably places where they don't have to keep the pepper spray handy.

"The peace and privacy in Palm Springs is in startling contrast to life in Stonington, where there can be intense interest in other people's activities, sometimes to the point of privacy invasion," the couple wrote.

With that kind of longing for privacy, one wonders why anyone would be so public with their gripes.

This is the opinion of David Collins