Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Fewer Incidents of Crime Reported in County : Policing: Extra patrols prevented looting in damaged areas. But thieves struck at two unguarded Simi Valley schools.

Despite fears that darkened and abandoned homes and businesses damaged in Monday’s earthquake might be ripe pickings for vandals, law enforcement authorities said crime in Ventura County actually decreased following the quake.

With electricity knocked out in most of the county, police departments and Ventura County sheriff’s deputies mobilized, assigning officers to patrol streets and protect businesses where broken windows and collapsed walls left them vulnerable to theft.

In Simi Valley, one of the hardest hit areas in the county, authorities said they received a few reports of possible vandalism, but could find only broken windows on arrival. And what some callers reported as suspicious cars cruising neighborhoods turned out to be officers in unmarked cars patrolling the streets, police said.

But two unguarded Simi Valley elementary schools, one damaged in the quake and the other left unscathed, were hit by thieves this week. The burglars stole televisions, videocassette recorders and other equipment, said Susan Parks, assistant superintendent at the Simi Valley Unified School District.

“In a situation like this, I call it looting,” she said. “It makes you sick to think this happened in our own town.” Employees are now guarding schools in the district, she said.

In Fillmore, where two Ventura County sheriff’s deputies normally patrol the entire city, 22 uniformed officers were dispatched and on the scene by early Monday to protect the devastated downtown area, said Sheriff’s Lt. Dick Diaz, who heads Fillmore’s law enforcement department.

The officers surrounded the two-block area, where many of the brick buildings collapsed. Later in the week, a six-foot chain-link fence was erected around the area, with deputies stationed inside and outside the perimeter.

The nearby mobile home park, which was evacuated, was also patrolled and no looting was reported, Diaz said. Private security guards have since taken over.

“We’re isolated out here,” Diaz said. “The people here who might have been tempted were involved in the earthquake and weren’t out doing crime,” Diaz said.

He said there have been two burglaries reported since Monday at homes that were occupied. “So it’s hard to say if that’s earthquake-related,” he said.

Overall in the county, reports of crime in areas served by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department were down sharply Monday, followed by an increase up to near-normal levels in the days since, said Lt. Gary Markley. But, he said, it is difficult to say whether the decrease in crime reports is due to the earthquake or interrupted telephone service in the county.

The Sheriff’s Department serves Moorpark, Thousand Oaks, Fillmore, Camarillo, Ojai and unincorporated areas surrounding the cities.

“We were busier than ever with calls for broken gas lines and falling walls,” Markley said. “But the number of crimes reported and the number of emergency calls that someone is being threatened with a gun or knife were way down.”

In Santa Paula, where the historic brick buildings downtown survived the quake, there were no reports of vandalism despite the lack of power, said Cmdr. Mark Hanson.

“It happened at 4:30 in the morning and it was only a couple of hours until daylight,” he said. “‘But we were gearing up to have high visibility if the power was still out that night.” Power was restored by afternoon, he said.

In the city of Oxnard, the thieves stayed home, possibly to watch television reports of the earthquake damage, said Oxnard Police Department spokesman David Keith.

“I’m sure they’ll make up for it next week and get back to their usual routine,” he said. “Crime fell off during the Gulf War in 1991 when the crooks and everybody else were glued to CNN.”

No data was available in Ventura, but Lt. Steve Bowman said calls for service were down since Monday.

“People were focused on other things,” he said.