Six La Cañada homes burglarized Friday; sheriff’s officials investigating three other break-ins
Despite efforts by the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station to keep La Cañada streets crime free during the holiday season, nine burglaries — including six residential break-ins on Friday alone — were reported over recent days, according to local crime reports.
Sgt. Alan Chu, a detective with the Crescenta Valley Station, said Monday he and colleagues were still processing details of the recent cases, which started last Thursday when someone broke the glass of a school building on the 4400 block of Cornishon Avenue and triggered an alarm that sent the suspect(s) fleeing.
Later that evening, at around 11 p.m., a restaurant on the 900 block of Foothill was reportedly broken into by suspects who pried open a door and broke an interior window to gain access to the property. An office safe showed pry marks but was still secured when deputies arrived on scene, Chu said.
Then, on Friday, six homes were burglarized. Chu said many of the incidents took place in the southern area of town, where suspects entered properties through unlocked side gates and gained access through back-facing windows or doors.
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One incident was discovered Friday morning on the 3900 block of Alta Vista Drive at a home left unoccupied after the death of the property owner, Chu said. The executor of the estate was called and, upon seeing the interior ransacked, told deputies he was uncertain whether anything was missing.
Sometime between 2:15 and 3 p.m., a woman living on the 4100 block of Dover Road left to pick up at least one child from school and returned home to find someone had entered the property and ransacked rooms in her absence and removed all the jewelry from a large standing jewelry dresser in the master bedroom, according to the detective.
The owner of a home on the 700 block of Hillcrest Avenue, who’d left the house to go to work in the morning, received an alarm call at 7:43 p.m. He returned home shortly thereafter and saw the property had been entered through a shattered rear sliding-glass door and ransacked, but told deputies he wasn’t sure if anything had been taken. The victim reported a black-hooded sweater not belonging to him was left on a dining room cabinet.
Later that day, Chu said residents who’d left their home on the 1000 block of Flintridge Avenue at around 6 p.m. returned at 10 p.m. to find the front door of the residence had been kicked open and some kitchen drawers rifled through. Nothing appeared to have been taken.
A homeowner living on the 1000 block of Lavender Lane got an alarm call at around 8:30 p.m. but believed it to be a false alarm, as there was no evidence of a broken window or open door in the alarm report. The next morning, however, a gardener saw broken glass outside the house. An electrical panel in a hallway of the home appeared to have been the only other item damaged in the incident.
Later on, at around 11:05 p.m., a report came in about a break-in on the 4500 block of Daleridge Road. In this instance, the homeowners were upstairs when their dogs started barking, Chu reported.
“[The homeowner] came downstairs and saw flashlights inside the house. When he came downstairs, the suspects ran,” Chu said, adding that the victims believe at least one suspect may have fled the scene in a sports car.
On Saturday, the owner of an unoccupied house under construction on the 3700 block of Hampstead Road reported sometime between 3 p.m. Friday and 2:20 p.m. Sunday, someone gained access to the property by kicking open a bedroom door and stole an air compressor, a toolbox, two nail guns and a laser level. It’s unclear whether that incident may have been related to the Friday burglaries.
This isn’t the first time La Cañada has been hit by a rash of burglaries in a short period of time. In late January, three businesses and three homes were hit in a 24-hour period. Last December, officials reported only three home break-ins, a steep decline from the 21 burglaries that plagued the city in December 2014.
In an interview Monday, Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station Captain Bill Song said neighborhood patrols in La Cañada are increased during the holiday season, when crime trends are known to spike, and deputies are hitting the streets earlier in the day to make their presence known.
Because burglars often target unoccupied homes, Song urged residents with travel plans to have friends or family members visit the property and make every effort to avoid the appearance of absence.
“If you’re going to be away, keep the lights on and make it look like somebody’s home,” he advised.
City Manager Mark Alexander, in an email statement Monday afternoon called the incidents “unfortunate.” He added, “If possible, light timers and arranging for newspapers and mail to be picked-up so that they don’t accumulate are very helpful in avoiding the appearance of an unoccupied home. Alarm systems have proven to be a very effective deterrent to home burglary loss but communicating with neighbors and neighborhood watch groups remains the best deterrent to crime and apprehending the suspects who commit them.”
Chu offered his own piece of advice.
“Lock your side gate, please,” he urged, indicating many of the homes hit Friday offered suspects easy access to backyards sheltered from neighbors’ view. “Once they get in the backyard, they’ve got all day.”
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
