Common Sense Can Help Prevent Vehicle Theft

Mark Twain once said, “There are three kinds of lies--lies, damned lies and statistics.”

While number crunching can be an honest way for law enforcement officials to determine whether the crime rate has gone up or down, the numbers don’t explain why crimes occur or how to prevent them.

A majority of vehicle thefts, for example, are crimes of opportunity and can be prevented with common sense.

According to authorities, most vehicles are stolen when they are left idling outside a post office, convenience store or fast-food place.

Unlocked cars parked in dark areas or unsecured garages are also hot targets, as are those without alarm systems and steering wheel locks.

“We don’t have a whole lot of violent crime, but we do have property crimes,” said Simi Valley Police Sgt. Bob Gardner. “So, if you eliminate the opportunity, you eliminate the crime.”

Statistics recently released by the state Department of Justice show that some people may be doing just that. Big decreases in thefts were reported in three of four Ventura County cities surveyed.

Comparing the first nine months of 1998 and 1999, the only period covered by the stats, thefts dropped an average of 27% last year in Ventura, Oxnard and Thousand Oaks, but jumped 10% in Simi Valley.

In the first three quarters of 1999, 164 vehicles were stolen in Ventura, 436 in Oxnard, 96 in Thousand Oaks and 135 in Simi Valley. During the same time period in 1998, 238 were stolen in Ventura, 597 in Oxnard, 126 in Thousand Oaks and 123 in Simi Valley.

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Money has fallen from the sky into the coffers of the cash-poor Santa Paula Police Department.

Last week this column included an item about a drug runner who landed his plane at Santa Paula Airport in 1998 with 600 pounds of cocaine on board.

It turns out that even though it was a federal case, the local police were eligible for a prize for making the bust.

Government agents seized David Wesley Allen’s ill-gotten gains after his arrest, including a house in Santa Barbara that sold last Friday for $870,000.

Forfeiture laws allow a portion of the proceeds to be given to any agency that helped on the case, which means Santa Paula is looking at a payday of about $100,000.

“It just kind of dropped out of the sky,” said Police Chief Bob Gonzales.

The money will be used to buy security cameras for the city’s jail, video equipment for a few patrol cars, a computer or two and maybe another K-9 unit.

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Call it the Bicycle Bat Cave.

Tucked away in a secret location in Thousand Oaks is the Ventura County sheriff’s newest substation--a 600-square-foot store with tinted windows that houses the department’s largest bike detail.

Four full-time deputies and 10 part-timers assigned to the two-wheeled posse have relocated to the office from the East Valley Station. The new facility has a desk, computer, fax machine and fleet of 14 mountain bikes hanging from wall racks.

The location of the lair is hush-hush, because officers don’t want criminals breaking in and stealing their stuff. Also, they want to be able to start patrol shifts or set out for crime scenes without being detected.

The stealth approach works, said Sgt. Jerry Weaver, because bike deputies can approach a crime scene quietly and surprise a suspect in the act.

Bike deputies can also maneuver through narrow alleys and other tight spots and blend in with citizens to conduct surveillance.

Having a deputy on a bike also allows for more contact with citizens, Weaver said. The cops can learn information about crime hot spots or share safety tips.

The new office, which is not open to the public, was donated by a local businessman who was impressed with the bike detail’s efforts.

Bike deputies made 155 misdemeanor and 22 felony arrests last year, compared with 148 and 18 in 1998.

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The lottery scam that seemed to be dying down has surged back to life, costing a 52-year-old Camarillo woman her life savings, authorities said.

The victim told police she was approached by a couple outside a local shopping center. The woman said she couldn’t collect on a $198,000 winning ticket because she is an undocumented immigrant.

Her male accomplice then called a third person, who posed as an attorney and promised the victim she would get $5,000 for cashing in the ticket at the “Fantasy Office” in Oxnard.

The victim then drove the couple to her bank and withdrew $25,000, which she gave to the woman to hold as collateral until the ticket was cashed in.

As the trio were driving to Oxnard, the woman vomited inside the victim’s car. When the victim stopped at a store to buy medicine for the woman, the couple ran away with the victim’s cash.

This is the seventh time since August 1998 that someone has been taken by such scams. In most of the cases, there are three suspects who prey on middle-aged or older women who usually speak only Spanish.

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Holly Wolcott can be reached at 653-7581 or by e-mail at holly.wolcott@latimes.com