About 250 residents came to a sweltering auditorium at Eliot Middle School last night to hear sheriff's deputies talk about the inroads they are making in Altadena's burglary wave -- a wave that just doesn't seem to go away.
Sheriff Capt. Steven McLean said that, in the last three months, deputies had jailed at least 20 suspected burglars -- some juveniles, and some gangbangers. He also said that burglary reports were going down -- from 12 in one week a month ago to three last week. The sheriff has also deployed more resources, including officers in the field, to tackle the problem.
But the wave is still going on, and deputies said -- as they had at a similar meeting last fall -- that gang members were a significant part of it.
(Pictured: Det. Lt. Joseph Dempsey addresses the crowd at Eliot Thursday night.)
Deputy Rich Pippin told the audience that Altadena was home to one of the largest Blood gangs in LA County, and that gangsters had figured out there was more money to be made from burglaries than drug dealing -- a drug dealer may score only $80 a day, but a few burglaries will net more than that, and the penalty is not as great if they're caught and convicted.
The burglary wave is following two parallel paths: thefts from cars -- either by rifling through unlocked cars or smashing windows and grabbing items left out in the open; and thefts from unoccupied homes -- grabbing high-value items quickly after gaining access through the back door, or increasingly by just kicking open front doors to grab and run.
Neighborhood burglary crews usually have one or more members doing the crime -- sometimes with a backpack to cart away the loot -- and a getaway car driver, who may wait in the the car some distance away, communicating by cellphone.
The burglar crews are sometimes casing homes by going door-to-door to see which homes are unoccupied. If the door is answered, they may offer an excuse, such as they are selling magazines or looking for a lost pet. Sometimes they will give the reason that they are workers (tree-trimmers, cable installers, etc.) in an attempt to gain entry to a house.
Deputies recommended several ways to help combat the wave, the most important of which was knowing your neighbors and who belongs in the neighborhood. They also encouraged joining or forming neighborhood watch groups. They gave special credit to Jeff Sedlick, whose new braewatch.org website monitors the area around Braeburn Ave. and has 175 members.
As well, keep your high value items out of sight -- don't leave iPods, phones, GPS devices, or purses in your car, and make sure things like widescreen TVs can't be seen from your front window.
The deputies also recommended anything that would make noise if a burglary was in progress -- such as a dog or an audible alarm system. LIkewise, if you are in the home and find a burglary in progress, they said to get out and begin to raise an alarm. "The most effective alarm is noise," said Dep. Pippin.
The sheriffs also announced that there will be a meeting of neighborhood watch block captains at the Altadena Library, 600 E. Mariposa, at 7 PM on July 27. The sheriff's department line is 798-1131, and the detective bureau is 296-2131. The sheriff email is altadena@lasd.org.
