Auto Burglary on our street

We are not alone or insulated from the burglary problem in the community. This email from Renee on the latest on our street.


'Upsetting news that another one of our neighbors cars was broken in to while the car was in the driveway. This took place yesterday mid street where the street widens. The cars were left unlocked, however the culprits are bold as one car was in the persons driveway.

This recent break in tells me that we all need to be on the watch and that who ever is committing these crimes are looking for easy opportunity.

Please remember to lock your vehicles and all doors of your homes, even if you are at home in order to keep family and your property safe.

Have a Safe Weekend!
Renee"

I have spoken with officers on different forces and understand our primary problem is we are complacent with security. We need to remember to lock doors and close windows. We need to watch and report what is out of the ordinary.

Compounding the problem is the bad guys know we are easy targets of opportunity. They share with each other what communities are easy targets, easy in and out to freeways with little traffic. We are a community that even San Bernardino prisoners know is easy and tell their pals in the jail.

Simple precautions will prevent most of our problems. Ignoring it and dropping our guard makes us the next victim. Unsettling, but welcome to life in the city.

NE Monrovia daytime burglary continue.

From the Monrovia City Watch blog. He posted his block captains warning to the neighbors on his blog. This is one of several daytime home burglary's to take place in the NE part of town.

Hi everyone,

It’s serious Neighborhood Watch time!! There has been yet another burglary, this time on Monday, August 11th, at the gray house right before the tree at the top of Norumbega, belonging to Don, the trumpet player who has a Corvette. It happened between 4 and 5 in the afternoon. The suspect was an older white male who stole a computer system and some other stuff.

Suspect on the loose! Secure your homes! Be aware and report any suspicious cars or suspicious characters coming door to door who ring doorbells to see whose home. If your neighbors are not on this list, get their emails and forward it to me so we can alert others of ongoing suspicious activities.

As we've said in the past, be alert and report anyone who doesn't belong here, especially if they are where one would not expect a casual visitor to be! Then let Frank and Renee know so we can get the word out to everyone.

Burglary's in NE Monrovia Continue

I spotted this gem to the residents up on Norumbega from their Neighborhood watch that was posted on Monrovia City Watch:

There was a burglary at 1010 Norumbega this afternoon 8/7/08. The burglars jimmied the front door and got in. Not sure at this time what was taken.

There was also another burglary in the 1100 block a few weeks ago in a house just before the 4 houses that form the cul de sac. A college-aged kid heard some noises in the middle of the night, went downstairs and surprised a burglar in progress, who then ran away.

It’s a very timely reminder to report any suspicious people you see on our street! Call the police at 256-8000!
Eileen

You should read the full Monrovia City Watch post for their take on the situation.

Our awareness and dilgence is needed to keep our street safe. If you see something report it. If you see unusual cars just left on the street, ask anyone if they know who it belongs too, and if it isn't identified call the police and report it as a potential abandoned auto.

Whenver you see something or are a victim yourself let Renee or Frank know so they can post here and make sure everyone is aware of what to look out for.

Home Burglary's in North Monrovia

Monrovia City Watch reports that yesterday MPD with an assist from APD rounded up and arrested 3 residential burglars up on eastern Norumbega Drive. Full story on that blog.

Interesting point made in the post is that during tough economic times burglarys increase. The need to be aware and report anything out of the ordinary is always important.

We've already seen a rash of auto burglary in the street earlier this year, take the precautions to lock up your house AND windows to secure them as well.

Street lights put to rest

From an email earlier sent to mailing list:

Dear All,

It seems that we do not have a majority vote to move forward with additional street lights for our block, so we will put this to rest.

Stay Safe,
Renee

Just a reminder as Lee and others noted you can do your own security lighting cheaply with motion detector lights for increased lighting around your home in areas you have a concern.

The best defense still is to simply lock and secure your cars and home at night as our burglary's last spring were due to unlocked cars.

As always, report suspicious activity when you see it to MPD and let your neighbors know what you saw. That will do more to slow down and prevent problems.

Theft Alert - ATM Debit Card Fraud

From the North Primrose Alliance blog. Several of their neighbors have been hit. Be alert. Monitor your accounts and report any suspicious activity.

THEFT II!
Neighbors:
We put this in an email the other day, but based on a conversation with MPD want to reiterate: If you think you might have had an unauthorized withdrawl with your ATM card, please contact the police immediately.
Apparrently there is a ring of thieves who have used technology-based methods to steal credit card and PIN data. They have been hitting customers who use the Pavillions ATM.

As you may know, one of our Primrose area neighbors was among the victims. Also, a friend of ours from the VFW was victimized at the Ralphs in Arcadia. When he went to report the crime, there were five other victims in line! He lost $600!

Word from MPD is to be careful when using ATMs, and look carefully at the machine before you use it. If anything looks awry, don't do it!

Frank & Renee

Streetlight information - neighbor input needed.

The subject of increased street lighting came up in our first Neighborhood Watch Meeting and again in a comment on a blog post here. A little confusion arose from whether we are on the City light grid or that of Edison. I did get it confirmed and with the help of Councilman Tom Adams got some answers to help with our decision process.

Not only would locations be a concern if new poles need to be put in to get additional lights up on the street, but we would need to bear the cost as well. How much depends on how much needs to be done to increase the lighting. The information courtesy of Mr Adams from our email conversations:

If a neighborhood is requesting street lights there are a few things we need to know if they are in the Edison service area or the City's service area we do have a Street light map indicating the service areas and we would need at least 67 % of that block to agree to the new lights.

If they are in Edison's service area and there are existing telephone poles on the street side it is just a matter of requesting new lights from Edison and it should take about three months to install. Edison would charge the City the monthly service charge of about $12.00 per light. If there are no telephone poles it may take 6 months or so.

If there in the City's service area it would cost approximately $7,000 per light, we would set up an assessment district to cover the installation cost.

The third option could be to install solar street lights for about $8 to $10 thousand dollars per light remember there would be No monthly electrical cost. Again these are all hypothetical scenarios; there are other options and cost associated with this type of request.

If you think enough of your neighbors are interested we can drill this down to some factual numbers.

I told Mr Adams that we'd get an answer back to him next week. The costs will be born by us.

The street lights will brighten up the area and make it more difficult for the petty prowlers scoping out the neighborhood after dark which could help prevent the rash of auto burglary we experienced last spring, and the tagging only a couple of months ago.

The negative side that has been mentioned is that it will diminish the more rural feeling of the street.

The question put forth is do we want hard information to explore this further? If so once we get hard numbers we'd have to put forth a petition or similar document with 67% approval of the homeowners on the street.

Please let Frank and Renee know by early next week your thoughts so we can let Mr Adams know our decision.

Finally...a big thanks to Mr Adams in his help in getting this going for us.

Frank & Renee

The hawk chicks are out hunting

Both of the Hawk chicks are out of the nest and learning to hunt. So far it has been small lizards.

The parents left the remnants of a parrot in the Zgonc bird bath to soften. As in years past before the chicks learn to hunt bigger prey the parents make a kill and let it soften someplace before delivering it to the chicks to pick apart and eat. So much for our native species getting pushed out of the neighborhood.

So far the chicks hunting routine seems to be centered in the Zgonc to Chan yards. The entire family is out fairly each morning. The parents seem to spend a lot of time in the pines on Canyone watching the chicks learn to fly etc., on our street. The entire clan gets together later afternoon at Roberto's house. Sometime around dusk they return to their nest.

Baby Hawks are out of the nest today.

The big discovery this morning is that the pair of nesting Hawks that have visited us the last 7 years has 2 chicks again this year. Also this morning the first of the chicks made it first tentative flight out and was in the corner of my gardens. The father was near the nest watching us. The mother was swooping about hunting and watching as well.

If the schedule follows the last few years in about 4 weeks the chicks will be hunting on their own with the parents leaving a week or so later.

With 4 hawks hunting we should some good action in the next few weeks. It is always interesting to watch them learn to hunt. The feeding, well that is only for the strong stomachs. Any guesses how soon we see them yank a parrot or raven out of the sky and feed?

Taggers punk our neighborhood

Sadly our neighbors closer to Foothill got tagged in the wee hours Saturday morning. MPD was called and assured the owner of the worst hit property the city would be by to remove it. (If the city can't clean it up soon we will. Frank, Mike and Joey visited with her and let her know we would clean it up for her if the city lets this go too much further). We may not be a "map" neighborhood but we deserve to be graffiti free as well!

Renee has a call into MPD to talk with the officer who took the report. She will find out if possible if we know which gang did it and what to watch for in the future to help prevent future incidents.

Karen who used to live on the street was by with Adrian on Sunday. As a little refresher she works for MUSD as a child psyche and is involved with at risk kids in our schools. She saw the graffiti and let Renee know that it was not a Monrovia gang. We don't know which gang it is, and we don't know if we should be reassured by it being "outsiders" or not.

As always if you see something going on call it in. If you see some up here that shouldn't be and they are some place where an outsider shouldn't be, call 911 as well. MPD needs our help to keep crime off our street.