Beach Cities Hit by Cell Phone Thefts

At a time when cellular phone thefts appear to be declining elsewhere in the nation, several cities along the coast are experiencing a rash of auto burglaries involving young thieves who boldly smash car windows and swipe the phones inside.

“In terms of auto burglaries, it sure seems like it has surpassed the car stereo, at least in our city,” Newport Beach Sgt. Mike McDermott said. “Something like a cell phone is very easy to steal. It’s not like the car stereo where you have to pry it out of the dash. You break the window and you’re in and out of there in less than 10 seconds.”

McDermott said that Newport Beach experienced a combined total of 142 auto break-ins during October and November, many involving cellular phone thefts. Typically, the city had between 30 and 40 such break-ins each month.

“We had guys taking reports all morning once people woke up and realized their cars had been broken into,” McDermott said.

In December, things cooled off a bit with only 23 car break-ins. Among those, seven cell phones were taken.

Such burglaries in Newport Beach have increased over the last year, with thieves sometimes hitting five or six cars at a time. While that city has experienced the biggest surge, neighboring cities also report an increase or say they have been fighting a constant battle.

“It’s a tremendous, growing problem,” Irvine Sgt. Rick Handfield said. “There are just more [phones] around. In California, we all seem to have a cell phone.”

A few years ago, cellular phones were a particularly hot item among thieves, who would reprogram them for sale on the black market. But security measures on newer phones can automatically shut off the phone once it has been reported stolen, making it virtually useless to a criminal. Police suspect that the new rash of burglaries is being committed by groups of young people out for thrills rather than profit.

“It might just be for usage for the moment,” said Newport Beach Det. Mark Fisher, a member of the Orange County Auto Theft Task Force.

Melissa May, spokeswoman for Irvine-based AirTouch Cellular, said a stolen phone can be “switched off 15 minutes later so that it becomes a paperweight and doesn’t provide any value to the thief.”

“Perhaps this is being done by inexperienced criminals who don’t know the phone can quickly be switched off,” May said.

But the practice of what some in the cellular phone industry refer to as “smash and grab” burglaries may persist because older-model phones can still be cloned or reprogrammed, Fisher said.

“Most of the phones we are seeing stolen are the old style,” he said.

Some of the phones being stolen aren’t cheap. Three days before Christmas, someone stole a phone worth $870 from a patio in the 6900 block of West Ocean Front. Most cell phones reported stolen around the county in recent weeks range in value from $100 to $500, according to police records.

“They are still accounting for about 30% of our car burglary losses, McDermott said. “As far as other types of property stolen, that outpaces everything else like golf clubs, stereos, wallets and purses.”

In neighboring Costa Mesa, Robert Medina said his $129 cellular telephone was stolen when he left it at a table at Amici Trattoria Italiana.

The Rancho Santa Margarita resident said he notified the phone company immediately to disconnect the service and was relieved to discover that he would not be charged for any calls made after his visit to the restaurant.

A cellular phone owner for nine years, Medina recently purchased a new cellular phone. He said he plans to keep a closer eye on it from now on.

“This one I do have insurance on,” he said.

Marty Hill, a salesman at Let’s Talk Cellular in the MainPlace/Santa Ana mall, said he is aware of about 20 customers over the last two years who have had their phones stolen.

To protect against theft, he usually recommends that people buy insurance. He also advises that customers buy phones with lock features that prevent users from accessing a phone without first punching in a secret code.

Officials at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Assn. in Washington say that Newport Beach’s situation “is going against the national trend.”

Tim Ayres, vice president for communications, said phones “have become a lot less valuable on the black market, because there’s an awful lot of anti-fraud measures built into the system.”

In 1998, there were less than 200 million cases of reported cell phone fraud, compared with 650 million cases just three years ago, according to the association. Such fraudulent calls are generally associated with stolen cell phones.

“It used to be that there was a market for stolen phones which would be reprogrammed and what we call cloned,” Ayres said. “Because of new technology, cloning has fallen in recent years. But the fact of the matter is you can still steal and make calls on it until someone knows it’s gone.”

Newport Beach police recently caught “several crews” that were stealing the phones and hope their arrests will relieve the problem. But police in several cities said the thefts could be completely avoided if people simply kept their phones with them.

“People leave them on the dashboard, sitting on the seat or on the center console,” Laguna Beach Lt. Dannell Adams said. “Take the phone with you. Some are so small they can fit into your pocket or purse.”

Times staff writer Richard Marosi contributed to this report.