ANTELOPE VALLEY – In light of the increase in home burglaries, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has issued the following Community Advisory to assist residents in protecting their homes. Please read on for important safety information:
Burglary victims often feel vulnerable and violated as their personal space has been invaded. Records show that home burglaries often occur during the day, while families are at work or school.
The most common entry technique is a hard kick to the door, forcing the wooden jamb to give way. Household tools like hammers, screwdrivers, pry bars and pliers may be used to gain entry into your home.
Unfortunately, it is hard to catch burglars in the act and harder to catch them after the fact.
While residential burglaries seem random, burglars usually choose their targets. Unoccupied homes with easy or concealed access and quick escape routes are targeted.
Once inside your home, burglars look for small expensive items that are easily traded for cash. Favorite items include cash, jewelry, laptops, CD/DVD players, game consoles, watches, guns and small electronic devices.
Follow the tips below to protect yourself and make your home a less likely target for burglars.
WHILE ON VACATION:
- Ask a family member or friend or hire a house sitter to live in your home.
- Ask neighbors to help with your trash bins and newspaper.
- Install an approved and monitored residential alarm system.
- Park a neighbor’s car in your driveway.
- Use timers on indoor lights to give the impression you are home.
- Have merchandise delivered to a neighbor’s house.
- Request Vacation Home Checks from your local sheriff’s station.
BRIGHT IDEAS:
Install lights by all exterior doors, and leave them all all night. Install lights by all exterior doors. Use lights at night.
- Install outside light fixtures where bulbs are hard to reach.
- Illuminate house numbers for quick emergency services response.
DOORS & WINDOWS:
- Install good quality dead-bolts on your doors and USE THEM.
- Change the locks when moving into a new residence.
- Always lock your doors and windows.
- Give your trusted neighbor / family member the spare key – Don’t hide it outside.
- Use solid core or metal exterior doors.
- Use dead bolt door locks on exterior doors and double cylinder dead bolt locks if glass is within 3 feet of the lock.
- Add auxiliary track-type locks, removable drop bars, wooden dowels, or pinning devices to windows and sliding glass doors.
- Upgrade locks to defeat bump keying.
- Install peepholes on doors with 160 degree views so you don’t have to open the door to see outside.
- Use a locking mailbox.
- Never leave notes for anyone on the door.
- Keep your valuable personal information in a safe deposit box.
- Complete Operation ID and display the window stickers. Read more at www.opid.org.
LANDSCAPING:
Trim shrubs back from doors for better security. Trim tree branches seven feet off the ground.
- Prune shrubs to under three feet from the ground.
- Use motion sensors and photocells on exterior floodlights.
- Trim shrubs back from doors and windows. Don’t give burglars places to hide while they are breaking in.
DEALING WITH STRANGERS:
- Never let strangers enter your home.
- Verify workers by identification cards and calling their employer.
- Never give keys to workers.
VEHICLE SMARTS:
- Close the garage door and cover windows so no one can see inside.
- Hide the garage door opener from open view in your car.
- Don’t leave valuables like your purse or GPS in plain sight.
- A shopping bag may be empty but looks valuable, so burglars will break in to get that too.
MAKE SAFETY A HABIT by locking your home at all times. Join your local Neighborhood Watch, or create one by contact your local Sheriff’s station. Read more at www.ncpc.org/topics/home-and-neighborhood-safety/neighborhood-watch.
Partner to prevent crime by contacting your local sheriff’s station with information about possible criminal activity. If you wish to remain Anonymous, call “LA Crime Stoppers” by dialing 800-222-TIPS (8477), texting the letters TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or visiting lacrimestoppers.org.
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Paul says
What’s happening in this valley? I can’t wait to either retire or transfer out of here. Even the san Fernando valley seems better.
Mike W. says
Its not the valley, its the economy. Read the news in other places. Same thing is going on with the rise in burglaries.
ryenisha jackson says
How come santa clarita or Newhall or Acton or Sylmar or Reseda dosent have this problem……………..
birdie says
they DO! This is not a local problem. This is going on all over the country. The economy is making people feel desperate.. that’s the only thing that makes sense. however, with that said, if you feel threatened if someone breaks in I suggest you become prepared to FIGHT BACK! Thieves are theives..
Tim Andrews says
I lived in Ridgecrest which is like 90% white people and I had stuff stolen all of the time. Most of the people in Ridgecrest know a tweaker if they arent related to one. There were good things about living there that I liked, such as being close to Kern River and Bishop/Mammoth and taking motorcycle rides out through Trona and Panamint up to Death Valley, then going the back way into Pahrump or Vegas. It’s a sad town though overall. The people with Navy/government jobs or Cerro Coso jobs look down on the people who work at Walmart & albertsons. Lots of meth and down&out looking people who resent eachother. Lots of boarded up stores. Yes, Ridgecrest does have low crime. But while living in Ridgecrest, I had a gun pointed in my face, and caught a guy breaking into my house, and I lived in one of the better parts of town (S of E Upjohn).
I would put it one notch above Barstow in terms of livability. People that steal
James Ally says
Very good & logic QUESTION ???
Thank you.
Eric Johnson says
It will only get worst… what is Lancaster Sheriff’s doing about it? Nothing… just chilling at the park and setting speed trap.. they don’t care about your neighborhood to patrol the area… all they can do is take report after the crime… until the thugs get bullets inside of them… they’ll be at your house taking your belonging while your at work…..
Lancaster Sheriff’s… get off your ass and start biking the neighborhood…. don’t sit at the park under the trees in your A/C patrol car….
S. Parker says
It is terrible of you to blame the crime situation on an overburdened, stretched to the max sheriffs department. The sheriffs are not responsible for the crime, criminals are!
At least the sheriffs are providing you with information on ways to protect yourself. Our community must start policing ourselves and stop waiting on the sheriffs to do everything. They can only do so much.
I have read many stories on this site alone about people not wanting to give information to the deputies to help them solve crimes. So how are they ever supposed to solve anything without the public’s help??
Instead of throwing the sheriffs under the bus, how about you work with them and report suspicious activity when you see it. We all must work together to shake this crime problem and stop pointing fingers.
sacryinshame says
Report suspicious activity…what a joke. The non-emergency number for the Lancaster station is not the least bit interested in suspicious activity. The always say they’ll send a car, sometimes WITHOUT even asking you for the address of the suspicious activity. When I asked if they wanted the address, they laughed!
I personally have reported kids hanging around a front yard of a neighbors house while they are at work. Two days later, I find out the house got robbed.I waited about 30 minutes at the curb, in my car 15 feet from the kids and no cop came and I had an appointment.
Another recent report I made of suspicious activity that was ignored was 2 young boys headed north in the canal at 25th and W Ave J. The 2 boys stopped in the canal to smoke some weed and set a fire that went up into some large pine trees in the culdesac at 2600 block Pondera. 2 firetrucks came and put the fire out. I had reported the boys going over the fence into the canal, reported again that they were smoking weed in the canal, and called back when they set the fire. I told the station, the boys were running toward Lancaster Blvd and gave a detailed description of the boys and what they were wearing. After the fire was put out, a LASD showed up and asked if anyone knew who set the fire. Very frustrating.
Another incident, I called the non-emergency number to report 2 taggers in the canal north of Lancaster Blvd. I could see them clearly from the street as they were working on a large tagging project with about 80 spray paint cans set out over a large area. I called 3 times and no one came. I finally called the school deputy and within a few minutes, three LASD cars showed up and caught them. The news that night said officers had witnessed them tagging personal property and followed them through the neighborhood to the canal.
I have suggested numerous times on this website, put some officers on bikes. You can sneak up on alot of stuff when the bad guys don’t see or hear your car. Parking lots at Walmart or the front of the Valley Center Stores have people doing and selling drugs openly.
Catch them! Don’t let them slip by using the excuse they are promoting their CD’s. (Another recent example) A guy spent the afternoon meeting people in the parking lot of 99cent store, and then moved to Food for Less parking lot. People were driving in to meet him and exchange money for something that fit in the palm of a hand. Sometimes they would walk away waving a cd around….but it’s a cover. Explain if I was going to get a promotional cd from the guy, why I would have to put my back pack in the back seat of his car and let him fool around with it for awhile always looking around to see if anyone is looking, they I make a quick exit to a waiting car and leave the area.
I don’t want to think or say they are just here to get a paycheck. However, I don’t think they are interested in what we, as citizens, have to offer or say. They are their own little club, the enforcers, and they seem to have their own adgenda.The LASD are being paid to protect us, not just clean up after the crime as been committed.
The problem houses that we, the community complain about, are filled with problem people. Instead of checking them out, we are told to stop being the 5% that take up 95% of the LASD time.
Some neighborhoods have Neighborhood Watch. There’s usually only a couple of people in the neighborhood watch group that are actively doing any watching or reporting. Members in the neighborhood count on those people to be their eyes and ears. Those few members email others with issues and warnings.
When the LASD never responds and after a few years of frustration, you stop reporting and the home burglaries increase. That’s what is happening in our neighborhood.
sacryinshame says
Sometimes people don’t want to give information to the police because the police tell where they got the information. If you have a home, children, and animals that can be hurt, that’s a scary thing. It’s scary because as everyone has pointed out, juveniles are released before the paper work is done and adult offenders are usually set free with little or no bail.
Observer says
i dont think that the sheriffs give a [removed] about us anyway. Most of them dont live here so why should they?
they are just here to get a paycheck and a pension and make enough money to get their wives/girlfriends new boob jobs and lots of toys (atv, jet skis, sea doos, speed boats) to take on vacations.
If you didn’t live here (like them) why would you care about our community?
Utz says
Actually, a lot of deputies live in the Antelope Valley. Yes, they are probably not going to be living off a bad stretch of Gadsden, but they do live in this valley.
They have a ridiculous amount of reports to write, and chances are if they are chilling at the Lancaster park they are writing reports, or waiting to bust a shop lifter from Target, Winco, or Costco or any other store in the area. Or a disturbance at nearby apartments. I rarely see a patrol car at the park sit there for more than 30 minutes, ever.
Go for a ride along, see what’s up.
Observer says
yeah right! most live in valencia, northridge or tehachapi. almost none live in Lancaster!
I agree with almost everything else you have said though.
Observer says
oh yeah and Acton/Agua Dulce too!
Utz says
Observer, the reason why I said many live in Lancaster is because I personally know over a dozen that do, now that is a rather small percentage of the whole Lancaster and Palmdale stations, but I doubt they are the only ones.
I wish more did live in the AV though, I agree for many that are not part of the valley and haven’t seen it change for the worse, there is a bit of a disconnect, but in other ways it’s good, because they can police areas without personal bias.
sacryinshame says
The 3 LASD deputies, that live within 10 blocks of my house are NEVER seen in the neighborhood, unless they are coming by their house in the LASD car. They drive through people fighting, yelling smoking weed and teenagers drinking in the back of a pickup parked at the curb..and NOTHING. They don’t notice anything. They don’t care.
sacryinshame says
Eric, your comment deserves a 2 thumbs up!
ryenisha jackson says
Just get a knife and if theses dummys Decide that your house looks like it may have somthing for them protect yourself
Observer says
a knife? [removed] that! those bitches will be staring down the barrel of a loaded if they [removed] with me!
What crime saith Parris says
Odd how crime was reportedly down before Parris got re-annointed and the AVPressured-by-Parris finaly reported the day after the elction that violent crime had surged. How desrving are we.
Simplypriss says
It is pretty scary to see how much negativity can be going on in your otherwise quiet neighborhood. A couple months ago we had a security system installed. I’m home by myself 95% of the time and nearly 100% of the time my home is armed. It’s hard that it’s gotta be that way but for safety’s sake… I will do what I’ve gotta do
Robbed Too says
Police suggested the Realtor sign out front is a signal to target. I asked that mine be taken down. Neighbors may not think twice about strangers going in and out of your house with stuff during the day. I came home early and surprised a burglar. He was caught but his accomplices were not. They came back a few weeks later.
Older homes need the windows reinforced with locks or dowels to prevent a thief from sliding them open if they are able to force windows apart enough to release the latch. A friend told me to put the window locks at the top of the frame – harder for a thief to reach.
Mailbox vandalism occurred the other day-seems like everyone was out that day fixing their mailboxes or replacing them.
It does feel as if crime is on the rise.
what what says
Get a dog…not a small dog, a large breed dog. We have a Rott and a few years ago, all the houses around ours were burglarized, but not ours. The reason…we had a dog, a big dog. Burglars think twice when they see a dog who can eat them alive.
Robbed Too says
I agree. I borrowed dogs which deterred thieves for a few weeks until the dogs had to go back home. Wish I was in a situation where I could keep a dog. They do definitely help.
sacryinshame says
If you can’t have a dog full time, how about fostering a dog for a rescue like Marley’s Mutts or some other local rescue. You get to have them for a while and they go to their forever homes.
Observer says
Seems like these home burglaries have increased all over the nation. Here’s an article from Las Vegas Sun:
Suspect sought in string of southwest Valley area burglaries
By Gregan Wingert
Friday, June 20, 2012 | 8:09 p.m.
Metro Police are asking for the public’s assistance in solving a string of southwest Las Vegas Valley burglaries in which a man driving stolen trucks rams them into commercial businesses to gain entry and steal property.
Police suspect a man committed these burglaries between February and April and was using stolen Ford F250 and F350 trucks.
The suspect — described as a 6-foot-tall, thin black man between 20 to 30 years old — leaves the scene in the stolen truck or on foot when the truck is too damaged to drive, police said.
Anyone with any information can contact the Metro’s Enterprise Area Command property crimes section at 828-4809 or Crime Stoppers at 385-5555 to remain anonymous.
Observer says
Metro reacts to burglary spike in Las Vegas with prevention tips
By Ashley Livingston
Monday, Feb. 9, 2009 | 1:23 p.m.
Click to enlarge photo
Keith Shimada / Special to the Home News
Officer Art Chavez hands Dave Miller information on home burglary prevention Thursday at the Albertsons on Silverado Ranch Boulevard and Maryland Parkway
Related links
After a spike in home burglaries in the Silverado area, Las Vegas Metro police officers recently took time to help teach residents how to safeguard their homes.
A number of Community Oriented Policing officers and volunteers, along with the area’s crime prevention specialist, spent Thursday afternoon passing out a packet of home security information to residents coming and going from the Smith’s and Albertsons grocery stores on the opposite corners of Silverado Ranch Boulevard and Maryland Parkway.
Metro’s South Central Area Command Crime Prevention Specialist Pamela Terry said the burglary spike was seen two weeks ago.
Terry explained that any number significantly higher than what is usually reported is considered a spike.
“We might go along and have one or two, then one week, we’ll have six,” she said. “The numbers are usually very low out here. If we see four or five, it’s like ‘Whoa.'”
According to Metro’s Crime View Community Web site, in which crimes are broken down by type and location, there were 32 burglaries in the 89123 zip code between Jan. 18 and Feb. 5.
Terry said the spike could not be considered a trend because the following week, zero burglaries were reported.
“My thing is, I want people to be thinking security all the time … not just because there have been a lot of burglaries,” she said.
Community Oriented Policing Officer Paul Page was among the group of people passing out the literature.
“If we can protect one person from becoming a victim, it’s worthwhile,” he said.
Metro volunteer Linda Ulrich said one of the great pieces of home security advice she’s been given is to use her car alarm to ward off potential burglars.
Keep the clicker for a vehicle with an alarm on a night stand and if threatened, hit the button to make some noise and try to ward off a potential intruder, she said.
Among the other advice listed in the packet was to make sure doors and windows are locked, secure sliding glass doors with a broomstick or wooden dowel, and don’t hide keys outside a home.
Additionally residents can prune back shrubbery that hides doors or windows, put lights and radios on timers to create the illusion someone is home and make sure doors fit tightly in their frames.
Silverado resident Cathy Robson said she appreciated Metro’s efforts.
“It’s kind of nice, especially nowadays,” she said. “This could be useful.”
For additional crime prevention tips visit the National Crime Prevention Council’s Web site at http://www.ncpc.org.
T. Morales says
when is that “eye in the sky” thing going up? that should help out with this at least!
Leave me alone says
And how will eye in the sky help?
Quigley says
Thank you AV Times for this information.