by Carolyn Seitz
cmseitz@mindspring.com
The incident related below is from a resident in north central Altadena and I thank the person who wrote it for sharing the details they do.
It is a good idea to understand how difficult it can be to tell the difference between kids being kids and kids and kids being criminals in support of their gang.
Please read what is written below and think about what you would do when you observe the same thing several people in this neighborhood observed today.
Captain Benedict, Lieutenant White and Lieutenant Allen are asking you to please call the Sheriff's Station when you see this kind of behavior.
It's better to call the station and let the deputies find out that the kids were just being kids, than it is to determine later that your neighbor suffered a break-in and loss of their valuables because they weren't kids just being kids, they really were an organized group of criminals, likely working in service to their gang.
Despite how young they might look, it is not unusual to have 12 to 16 year olds committing crimes for their gangs because the older gangsters know that they'll be treated as juveniles and get the equivalent of an adult wagging their finger at them telling them, "naughty, naughty!! Don't do that again!".
Why take a chance that they might have been up to no good?
Please also help us get these kids on the right track as early as possible when they may very well be 10 or 11 or 12 years old and are already making poor decisions and committing crimes.
Many thanks to the person who shared the info below.& Call the Sheriff's Station at 626 -798-1131 -- and call early and often when you see this kind of behavior. It's summer. School's out and some kids will be tempted to stray.
It may sound odd, but please help these kids. Call! You could be saving a kid who's walking on the edge.
About 4:00 PM today, my mom and I heard someone shouting outside and we thought it might be our neighbor Joe across the street. When we went outside, there was a young Latino kid in his teens, sitting on a bike outside G***'s house. He was calling to some unseen person nearby. As my mom watched, the kid on the bike rode further down the street to join two other Latino youths on bikes, sitting outside another neighbor's house. Mom said it looked as though one of them came from behind the neighbor's house. Then they rode off down the street. Don't know if the kid on the bike was a lookout for a break-in, I don't want to draw conclusions or make assumptions. Could be nothing, but just be careful. If anyone knows them, please let us know. It just looked odd.
