SAN GABRIEL VALLEY / COVER STORY : Stealing Into Our Lives : Unsensational Crimes Often Take Biggest Toll

The crimes from which we suffer are not typically the crimes that grab headlines.

Rape, robbery and murder stories may fill newspapers and local TV news shows, but annually they account for less than 5% of the nation’s reported felony crimes. Our victimization is more mundane: a stolen bicycle, a battered wife, an old car taken from a parking lot, a cherished watch swiped from our house.

These commonplace crimes are categorized by the FBI as larceny thefts, aggravated assaults, auto thefts and burglaries. Although all of those crimes inched downward last year and in the first six months of 1994, according to recently released FBI statistics, they still take up the biggest chunk of police time and involve huge financial losses--$15.2 billion in 1992--and untold emotional distress.

Crime statistics from the 30 cities in the San Gabriel Valley reflect the same trend. Of the 88,656 serious felony crimes reported in 1993 to valley law enforcement officials, 91% of them, or 80,957, involved thefts, assaults, auto thefts or burglaries. An examination of those four felonies in the San Gabriel Valley provides a clearer picture of the toll everyday crime exacts on our lives.

BURGLARY

The Pico family was asleep last Christmas Eve when burglars broke into their Glendora home on a quiet hillside cul-de-sac. The thieves took a garage door opener from an unlocked family car parked outside, used it to enter the garage and walked inside through an unbolted door.

When Pasadena attorney Tristan Pico awoke early Christmas Day, he found sports equipment worth $1,800 missing. Worse, $4,600 in cash was gone, along with his wallet and his wife’s purse. The couple rarely kept cash on hand, but Pico had just been paid for settling a court case. The family planned to use the small windfall to pay past-due bills; business had been bad that year and their six children already knew they would receive no gifts. Now, on Christmas Day, the burglars put the family in serious financial straits.

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“It was an awful experience,” Tristan Pico, 48, recalled. Creditors doubted their story, he said. The insurance company would reimburse only $100 of the stolen cash. The family did not recover financially for six months, he said.

The emotional toll was equally heavy. “What was frightening about it was we didn’t know who did it,” said Rosalie Pico, 47. She suffered nightmares. Her teen-age daughter feared entering the home alone, even during the day.

Six months later, one of the burglars, a neighborhood teen-ager, was caught, and $900 worth of the sports gear was recovered. He pleaded guilty and got probation. The Picos now lock their house at all times. Rosalie watches her back to make sure no one follows her home from errands. “We’ve just become more paranoid,” she said.

Unwittingly, the Picos, with their 6,000-square-foot home amid million-dollar houses, fit the profile of those most at-risk for burglaries. Houses in low-income neighborhoods--where most potential burglars live--and those in high-income neighborhoods--where costly jewelry and other valuables attract burglars--are most often targeted, said criminologist Jim Garofalo. Secluded houses and those on cul-de-sacs are also more likely to be burglarized, according to the Insurance Information Institute, a national insurance association.

Nationwide, a burglary occurs every 11 seconds, and, according to 1992 national crime statistics, burglaries accounted for and cost $3.8 billion in losses.

In the San Gabriel Valley, nearly 22% of all reported serious felony crimes last year were burglaries. Bedroom communities such as Glendora, which are quiet during the day, are particularly hard-hit, said Glendora Detective Gregory Santelices.

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Burglars usually operate in pairs, most often during daylight hours and on weekdays when homeowners are at work, police say. The cat burglar or “second-story man” with specialized skills for cracking into securely locked houses is largely a fiction. A typical burglar is a drug addict with simple prying tools: a screwdriver, crowbar or locking pliers, Santelices said.

The recovery rate for stolen goods is poor, Santelices said. “I tell (burglary victims) they’ll get their stuff back, but most of the time, you don’t,” he said. “Stolen stuff disappears real quick.”

To prevent burglaries, police and insurance companies suggest that homeowners install deadbolt locks, outdoor motion sensor lights, an alarm system hooked to a central monitoring station and timers on lights and a radio or television. Shrubbery should be trimmed to remove hiding places for thieves.

AUTO THEFT

Hun (Steve) Kim, 23, had planned to baby his shiny burgundy 1994 Honda Accord for the first 1,000 miles. But last Valentine’s Day, as the former waiter returned home alone at night in his prized vehicle, he was followed to his family’s home in Bassett and confronted by three teen-agers, one holding a rifle.

Ordered to lie down on the concrete driveway, he gave up the keys to his beloved car. The gunman threatened to kill him. Struggling to keep calm, Kim reasoned with the youth. “Hey, man, it doesn’t have to happen like that. I didn’t provoke you, dude,” he recalled saying.

The three fled, leaving him unharmed. Four days later, detectives from a special county team specializing in auto thefts found the car in Baldwin Hills. Two 16-year-olds and a 15-year-old had used it to carjack six other cars before they were arrested and ultimately convicted.

Even with his car back, Kim said, he remained upset for months. He fantasized about becoming a vigilante. He couldn’t drive, stayed home from work and got behind in his bills. He neglected his car, which had come back filled with trash. “It was disgusting,” he said. “I imagined them eating, joking and driving around to carjack other people in my car.”

Over time and with help from his girlfriend, he calmed down. But his life is changed.

“To this day, I’m very paranoid,” he said. “I look behind me. I feel more guarded now.”

The team that found Kim’s car is part of TRAP, the Taskforce for Regional Autotheft Prevention, a year-old program with its headquarters in El Monte. State funding began in 1990 after California legislators realized the magnitude of auto theft in California. Cars stolen in the state made up 20% of the 1.7 million cars worth $15.2 billion that were stolen nationwide in 1992. Nearly half the California cars--or 137,000 cars worth $1 billion--were stolen within Los Angeles County alone in 1992, said Sheriff’s Lt. Stephen Curry of TRAP.

The 50-person TRAP team uses detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the California Highway Patrol, the Los Angeles Police Department and other law enforcement agencies. They ignore the “mules,” the hirelings who actually steal the cars, and instead concentrate on the network of sophisticated criminals who devise intricate tricks to separate cars from their owners.

One common subterfuge is to steal an expensive car, strip it of parts and return it to the streets for police to retrieve. The thieves buy back the frame when it is sold later at an auto salvage yard, after the vehicle identification number on the frame has been recorded as “salvaged” instead of “stolen.” With the new legal designation, the thieves can replace the stolen parts, get insurance on the car themselves, arrange to have it stolen from them, falsely collect insurance on the missing car and repeat the cycle all over again.

One $96,000 Turbo Targa Porsche 911 was stolen, stripped and retrieved six times, with insurance companies paying out more than $575,000 to the thieves, before TRAP detectives advised the sixth insurance company to have the frame crushed, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Jim Murphy of TRAP.

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Another scam involves credit fraud, in which thieves tap into a credit service such as TRW, find someone with a good credit rating, make phony documents in their name and buy an expensive car, Murphy said. The thieves then drive a new car off the lot, never to make a payment.

Said Curry of the scams they uncover: “Protean is the word for it: It keeps on changing, it’s alive, it alters its shape, it changes its form and it’s highly adaptive.”

For beat patrol officers such as San Gabriel’s Tony Baumgart, the perspective is different. Baumgart, who was honored this month for retrieving more than 70 stolen cars, catches the mules, or car thieves. They are generally teen-agers equipped with a few simple tools to break into and start a car in seconds.

The owner of a new Lexus or Mercedes-Benz often recognizes that the car is a target for thieves, but the owner of an older, less-expensive cars often does not realize the vehicle might also be targeted. In California, the three most frequently stolen cars last year were Oldsmobile Cutlasses and Toyota Celicas and Corollas, model years 1974 to 1983, according to Western Insurance Information Service.

In the San Gabriel Valley, Hondas of every model are targeted, Baumgart said.

Although thieves cannot be stopped, they can be slowed down, police and insurance companies say. They suggest locking car doors, using The Club or other anti-theft metal locks, parking inside garages at home, parking in lighted areas when away from home and installing an alarm system hooked to a personal pager.

ASSAULT

Maria’s husband repeatedly banged her head against a bathroom mirror on their wedding day. It was abuse so common that Maria now says she barely remembered it until a friend told her later about having seen it.

Maria said that within two months after they met, her husband, charming and attentive at first, had moved her from her family’s El Monte home into an apartment where he kept her isolated and jealously monitored her every move. He put a block on the phone so she couldn’t call outside her area code. He outlawed her studies at a community college and at a dancing school. He beat her if she glanced out the apartment window at a male neighbor’s apartment or if she looked sideways on the freeway at a male motorist, she said.

Planning their 1990 marriage had been a refuge of sorts. After a year of violence, Maria said, she was left alone if she busied herself with marriage plans. But once married, the abuse began again. Shame and embarrassment kept her silent and in denial, she said.

During one fight at her parent’s home, where Maria had sought some escape, her husband beat her 65-year-old grandmother. Maria finally recognized her plight. “Until I saw him do it to someone else, I didn’t really know how bad it was,” she recalled.

It took a 45-day stay at a women’s shelter, a temporary restraining order that was repeatedly violated by her husband, divorce proceedings and assault charges against him--eventually dismissed--before Maria permanently freed herself from her husband.

Now the articulate 26-year-old is raising two sons, ages 10 and 3, as a single mother. A worker at a women’s shelter, she helps other women, like herself, recognize abuse and take steps against it. She hasn’t seen her ex-husband in more than two years, but Maria adds, “I’m not entirely free of the fear of him. I don’t know what he’s capable of doing.”

In the San Gabriel Valley, assaults made up 13% of serious felony crimes, or 11,559, in 1993. Police do not keep separate statistics on how many of the assaults involve domestic violence, but officials estimate that it accounts for up to half of the assault cases they log. Indeed, even as gang violence increases, patrol officers still spend much of their time answering calls between arguing couples.

“If anyone understands the horrors of domestic violence, it’s the average foot soldier police officer,” said Alana Bowman, chair of the county’s Domestic Violence Council. “They know women are not crying wolf on this.”

In Pasadena, officers in January will receive special training on domestic violence, said Sheila Halfon, executive director of Haven House, a Pasadena shelter for abused women.

Meanwhile, in West Covina, the county in October began a pilot program with a separate domestic violence courtroom, in part because such assaults make up a sixth of the courthouse’s caseload. Municipal Judge Dan Thomas Oki, who presides over the domestic violence courtroom, handles all misdemeanor domestic violence cases and preliminary hearings on felonies before they are transferred to Superior Court for trials. Plans are afoot to also have felony trials heard in his courtroom, Oki said.

Despite new police procedures and the new courtroom, victim reluctance to testify in court or even report the violence to police remains an obstacle to helping women, Halfon said. “If police do intervene, it just creates more problems,” she said. “That’s why so many of them won’t follow through.”

For domestic violence victims needing shelter or counseling, there are three shelters in the San Gabriel Valley with 24-hour help lines: YWCA Wings in Covina, (818) 967-0658; the House of Ruth in Pomona, (909) 988-5559, and the Haven House in Pasadena, (213) 681-2626.

THEFT

On a Monday evening last April, a man strolled into J.C. Penney store on Pasadena’s Green Street. Clerk Carol Beggy asked him if he needed help, but he said he was just looking. Minutes later, the man pulled out wire cutters, snipped the cable securing a $1,000 designer Raiders jacket to the rack, put the jacket on and walked casually out the door.

Employees and store security spotted the thief outside as he left in a 1977 Chevy Malibu. Pasadena police traced the license plate to the man’s house in Pasadena, where officers recovered the jacket stashed behind a sofa and found the thief hiding in a bedroom closet. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 28 months in state prison.

The FBI’s statistics for larceny cover a broad category of crime, including shoplifting, theft of goods from inside a car, theft of vehicle parts, and employee theft of goods and cash from their workplaces. The annual toll for all such thefts came to $3.8 billion in 1992, according to national crime statistics.

Scams are also logged by the FBI under the category of thefts. In the San Gabriel Valley, the FBI is investigating a phony operation that promised to provide consumer loans in return for a processing fee, said Lisa Altmar, a special agent in the West Covina FBI office. The loan group previously operated out of Orange County. But when enforcement toughened there, they moved to offices in West Covina, Alhambra, Glendora and South Pasadena.

To combat theft, police departments often provide store owners with free anti-theft sessions as part of crime prevention. Police also warn local residents against providing money up front when callers ask for fees to process alleged sweepstakes winnings or to provide services or products, sight unseen.

Overall, police provide a standard line of advice--”harden the target”--when they talk about crime prevention. Criminologist Garofalo suggests that the advice may have worked. Statistics from 1973 to 1992 have shown little increase in overall crime, including thefts, assaults, auto theft and burglary.

“Trends have been pretty flat since the late 1970s,” he said. “One possibility is that there is better home security, more Neighborhood Watch associations, better locks, more security surveys by police and a trend toward community policing.”

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Valley Crime

Although the number of murders in the San Gabriel Valley increased last year, all other types of crime decreased.

Type of crime 1992 1993 Murder 188 221 Rape 533 494 Robbery 6,766 6,006 Assault 12,955 11,559 Burglary 19,997 19,193 Theft 35,959 34,820 Auto theft 15,841 15,385 Arson 1,319 978 Total 93,558 88,656 % Change -5.2%

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, California Department of Justice, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and police departments in the San Gabriel Valley.

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City by City

City by City City 1992 1993 Alhambra Murder 9 4 Rape 16 19 Robbery 379 311 Assault 586 553 Burglary 886 895 Theft 2,029 1,721 Auto theft 951 799 Arson 50 32 Total 4,906 4,334 % Change -11.7% Arcadia Murder 2 2 Rape 6 4 Robbery 112 96 Assault 423 376 Burglary 551 556 Theft 1,295 1,378 Auto theft 324 328 Arson 13 21 Total 2,726 2,761 % Change 1.3% Azusa Murder 2 4 Rape 19 17 Robbery 127 96 Assault 680 625 Burglary 622 549 Theft 823 865 Auto theft 400 289 Arson 28 12 Total 2,701 2,457 % Change -9.0% Baldwin Park Murder 12 8 Rape 15 14 Robbery 266 196 Assault 765 621 Burglary 1,156 1,144 Theft 399 290 Auto theft 765 743 Arson 34 16 Total 3,412 3,032 % Change -11.1% Bradbury Murder 1 0 Rape 0 1 Robbery 0 0 Assault 1 2 Burglary 4 7 Theft 5 4 Auto theft 1 1 Arson 0 0 Total 12 15 % Change 25.0% Claremont Murder 0 3 Rape 6 5 Robbery 90 57 Assault 80 61 Burglary 507 441 Theft 889 1090 Auto theft 197 243 Arson 12 16 Total 1,781 1,916 % Change 7.6% Covina Murder 2 10 Rape 20 18 Robbery 186 139 Assault 377 575 Burglary 527 522 Theft 1,448 1,274 Auto theft 586 562 Arson 17 22 Total 3,163 3,122 % Change -1.3% Diamond Bar Murder 1 3 Rape 7 6 Robbery 97 67 Assault 208 206 Burglary 491 390 Theft 718 705 Auto theft 344 323 Arson 16 14 Total 1,882 1,714 % Change -8.9% Duarte Murder 4 1 Rape 6 8 Robbery 56 42 Assault 138 131 Burglary 226 195 Theft 358 325 Auto theft 145 192 Arson 8 2 Total 941 896 %Change -4.8% El Monte Murder 17 19 Rape 53 45 Robbery 710 625 Assault 744 698 Burglary 1,684 1,357 Theft 2,062 2,184 Auto theft 1,405 1,199 Arson 64 74 Total 6,739 6,201 % Change -8.0% Glendora Murder 1 0 Rape 10 13 Robbery 57 45 Assault 527 468 Burglary 427 460 Theft 956 1060 Auto theft 169 188 Arson 21 7 Total 2,168 2,241 % Change 3.4% Industry Murder 3 5 Rape 4 6 Robbery 142 125 Assault 183 147 Burglary 299 223 Theft 1,559 1,621 Auto theft 658 675 Arson 21 10 Total 2,869 2,812 % Change -2.0% Irwindale Murder 2 1 Rape 2 1 Robbery 13 12 Assault 46 30 Burglary 114 140 Theft 99 111 Auto theft 79 74 Arson 8 2 Total 363 371 % Change 2.2% La Canada Flintridge Murder 0 0 Rape 1 0 Robbery 12 21 Assault 35 30 Burglary 115 107 Theft 165 194 Auto theft 31 30 Arson 8 3 Total 367 385 % Change 4.9% La Puente Murder 13 8 Rape 16 18 Robbery 212 173 Assault 499 469 Burglary 366 287 Theft 561 510 Auto theft 430 396 Arson 23 6 Total 2,120 1,867 % Change -11.9% La Verne Murder 0 2 Rape 1 2 Robbery 39 35 Assault 46 49 Burglary 242 381 Theft 595 705 Auto theft 116 182 Arson 12 13 Total 1,051 1,369 % Change 30.3% Monrovia Murder 1 2 Rape 4 17 Robbery 106 102 Assault 282 250 Burglary 392 430 Theft 1,131 1,105 Auto theft 324 346 Arson 1 2 Total 2,241 2,254 % Change 0.6% Monterey Park Murder 2 6 Rape 8 9 Robbery 385 298 Assault 540 252 Burglary 817 747 Theft 852 458 Auto theft 728 673 Arson 7 4 Total 3,339 2,447 % Change -26.7% Pasadena Murder 18 27 Rape 55 44 Robbery 857 834 Assault 1,098 822 Burglary 1,891 1,797 Theft 4,846 4,808 Auto theft 1,403 1,352 Arson 91 51 Total 10,259 9,735 % Change -5.1% Pomona Murder 39 40 Rape 86 81 Robbery 911 995 Assault 1,060 1,237 Burglary 2,214 2,282 Theft 3,898 3,721 Auto theft 1,735 1,840 Arson 411 389 Total 10,354 10,585 % Change 2.2% Rosemead Murder 9 9 Rape 14 10 Robbery 291 285 Assault 450 377 Burglary 642 632 Theft 934 894 Auto theft 477 455 Arson 19 10 Total 2,836 2,672 % Change -5.8% San Dimas Murder 0 0 Rape 12 7 Robbery 47 47 Assault 148 163 Burglary 314 322 Theft 630 644 Auto theft 181 155 Arson 9 9 Total 1,341 1,347 % Change 0.4% San Gabriel Murder 1 4 Rape 7 14 Robbery 163 163 Assault 298 306 Burglary 462 446 Theft 796 609 Auto theft 262 269 Arson 12 8 Total 2,001 1,819 % Change -9.1% San Marino Murder 0 1 Rape 0 2 Robbery 11 17 Assault 17 11 Burglary 69 101 Theft 121 134 Auto theft 15 15 Arson 10 5 Total 243 286 % Change 17.7% Sierra Madre Murder 0 1 Rape 1 0 Robbery 3 2 Assault 11 18 Burglary 74 43 Theft 104 91 Auto theft 16 24 Arson 0 1 Total 209 180 % Change -13.9% South El Monte Murder 4 5 Rape 11 10 Robbery 123 109 Assault 291 217 Burglary 298 286 Theft 399 376 Auto theft 275 245 Arson 5 11 Total 1,406 1,259 % Change -10.5% South Pasadena Murder 0 0 Rape 1 5 Robbery 68 57 Assault 67 39 Burglary 210 220 Theft 482 413 Auto theft 213 241 Arson 6 47 Total 1,047 1,022 % Change -2.4% Temple City Murder 1 0 Rape 5 7 Robbery 55 50 Assault 105 128 Burglary 294 306 Theft 533 404 Auto theft 146 132 Arson 6 11 Total 1,145 1,038 % Change -9.3% Walnut Murder 1 2 Rape 4 8 Robbery 44 32 Assault 105 122 Burglary 294 300 Theft 342 350 Auto theft 102 93 Arson 17 8 Total 909 915 % Change 0.7% West Covina Murder 4 5 Rape 41 33 Robbery 402 276 Assault 475 348 Burglary 1,051 1,018 Theft 3,299 3,189 Auto theft 1,468 1,390 Arson 233 85 Total 6,973 6,344 % Change -9.0% Unincorporated areas Murder 39 49 Rape 102 70 Robbery 802 699 Assault 2,670 2,228 Burglary 2,758 2,609 Theft 3,631 3,587 Auto theft 1,895 1,931 Arson 157 87 Total 12,054 11,260 % Change -6.6%

Source: FBI, state Department of Justice, County Sheriff’s Department and police departments in the San Gabriel Valley.