East County Attracts Attention of L. A. Criminals : Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley grapple with surge in thefts by out-of-towners drawn by easy access and easy pickings, police say.

Jolted by the sound of breaking glass, a Thousand Oaks woman looked outside last week to see a strange man rummaging through her neighbor’s car in the pre-dawn gloom.

She called police.

Moments later, Ventura County sheriff’s deputies pulled over a car leaving the neighborhood and found stolen car stereo gear inside.

They arrested the car’s occupants--four men from Los Angeles--on suspicion of vehicle burglary.

That Tuesday morning break-in was only the latest in a string of 21 such burglaries that peppered the Westlake neighborhood since March 1. Detectives say they believe they caught the four responsible for the bulk of the crimes.

But they warned that the rash of break-ins is fresh proof that a persistent tide of imported street crime rolls over the county line into east Ventura County in waves.

Earlier this month, someone--likely a Los Angeles County burglar, police say--was smashing car windows to grab briefcases in Thousand Oaks.

And early Thursday, Simi Valley police nabbed six suspected car burglars from Panorama City.

The influx of Angeleno crime in the east county is not a new problem.

Four years ago, Thousand Oaks jewelers were hit with a spate of gunpoint robberies committed by suspected Los Angeles gang members.

Three years ago, teams of Los Angeles thieves breezed through Simi Valley department stores, grabbing expensive perfume, electronics and blue jeans by the armload.

Last summer, the car theft rate in Simi Valley jumped 79% from the previous summer. Often, detectives said, it would be a case of carloads of Los Angeles residents driving into town, splitting up and driving out in stolen cars.

Detectives say the surges of property crime are constant reminders that two of America’s safest cities should never let down their guard.

“The sophisticated, hard-core criminal element is located in the Los Angeles area,” Sheriff’s Detective Frank O’Hanlon said.

“I don’t think they actually recognize the Ventura County line as a border line,” he said. “I think they want to go a comfortable distance from their own back yard, and Ventura County fits the bill.”

For one thing, it’s close. For another, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley have easy freeway access.

Also, imported thieves run little risk of being recognized before they can grab their booty and scoot back across the line, detectives say.

And finally, they say, the pickings are good.

“You’re looking at a nice area out here that probably has more to offer in terms of valuable vehicles and property to be taken,” said Lt. Ken Tacke, head of Simi Valley’s detectives. “You’re probably not going to find as nice cellular phones or CB radios in Pacoima as you are in Simi Valley.”

Sheriff’s Sgt. Kitty Hoberg, head of the Thousand Oaks property crimes section, agreed.

“I think they all perceive this community to be more affluent than where they are,” she said.

Detectives in both cities say they share similar quirks in the rates of violent and property crime: while locals are hurt most often by locals, the out-of-towners are most responsible for stealing their belongings.

“The assaults with deadly weapons, the attempted murders--those are generally done by locals,” O’Hanlon said. “They erupt between people here. They’re crimes of passion.

“The ones we see from Los Angeles are generally crimes of profit,” he said. “The store robberies, the commercial robberies and bank robberies--at least 50% are coming from the Los Angeles jurisdiction.”

He cited two recent cases. One was the follow-home robbery of a Los Angeles jeweler, who was relieved of a satchel full of diamonds and cash by three gunmen at his Newbury Park home. The other was the robbery of a credit union on Townsgate Road by several men wearing gorilla masks and driving a car that was reported stolen in Van Nuys.

Interestingly, Simi Valley has fewer robberies than Thousand Oaks.

While Thousand Oaks reported an average of 65.5 robberies a year over the past two years, Simi Valley’s rate was 47 a year.

It appears that Los Angeles-area robbers are not drawn to Simi Valley as much, detectives there said.

“You’d think with our freeway access, you’d have robberies at gas stations that are close to the freeway on-ramps,” said Tacke.

“I’d say the freeway would make it an attractive invitation,” added Sgt. Mike King, head of the department’s property crimes section. “But the freeway’s also to our advantage, because it’s what we can close off after the crime occurs.”

While Thousand Oaks has a multitude of entrances and escape routes, Simi Valley police point to only six ways in or out of town. Only two of these head to Los Angeles--the eastbound Simi Valley Freeway and Santa Susana Pass Road. Several times, Simi police have nabbed homeward-bound Los Angeles car thieves--provided the thefts were reported in time, Tacke said.

“After we’ve made an arrest or two, like the auto theft situation (last summer) where we’ve caught some people, it’ll quiet down for a while,” he said.

However, Simi Valley tops Thousand Oaks in car thefts, and a good portion of those, detectives estimate, are committed by Los Angeles County residents.

Thousand Oaks reported an average of 332.5 cars stolen a year in 1993 and 1994, compared with a two-year average of 397 reported in Simi Valley.

Most vehicle thefts and automobile break-ins are crimes of opportunity, police said. Victims invite the crimes by failing to use anti-theft devices or leaving valuables where they can be spotted from the street.

“People are a little less paranoid here because they’re enjoying a more crime-free lifestyle,” he said.

Thinking they have parked somewhere safe, motorists also leave their pull-out stereos under their car seats, or they fail to remove the detachable faceplates from stereos--both of which attract burglars, said Hoberg.

And many victims leave their wallets or purses under car seats where they easily are seen through the windshield, she said.

“Thousand Oaks is supposed to be the safest city in the U.S. for its size, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have crime,” she said. “We still have to be careful.”