Public safety measures in place this summer were presented at the La Cañada Flintridge City Council meeting on June 18, as well as crime statistics for April and May from the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station.
Jennifer Burghdorf, public safety coordinator for the city, provided some targeted crime suppression methods that the city has in place for June, which includes neighborhood watch resources, tips to avoid burglaries and security camera rebates.
“We have an initiative right now for security camera rebates,” she said. “It’s up to $100 [and] we still have $6K in the budget, so please apply. There’s a lot out there. This is very beneficial for our residents and our community.”
Burghdorf also informed the community that National Night Out, an event to educate the community on public safety and learn more about its local sheriff’s station, will take place on July 16 at 6:30 p.m. at Olberz Park.
APRIL, MAY CRIME REPORT
Capt. Robert Hahnlein reported five residential burglaries for April, and one attempted burglary, in which a suspect tried to break into the house but ran away after noticing that someone was home.
Hahnlein said suspects are showing a pattern in how they are getting into homes.
“These residential [burglars] always have a similar method of operation; they go to the rear sliding glass doors, break in, [and are] in and out in about five minutes,” he said.
He also reported 21 thefts, four cases of vandalism and four identity fraud thefts for April.
There were two arrests made in the vandalism cases, “[where] one man slashed a tire from an Amazon truck and another man damaged the vehicle of a friend.”
The station recorded 10 arrests in the city for April, one fewer than in March, Hahnlein said.
Hahnlein also brought up a trend in wallet and purse thefts, in which suspects have seemed to target people at Panera Bread, Penelope’s Café Books & Gallery, and HomeGoods.
The station conducted an undercover operation at Panera Bread to see if authorities could see someone commit a theft, but there were no arrests made.
Meanwhile, video footage of a theft at Penelope’s was captured.
“Two people came in real quick [into Penelope’s], while four women were sitting at a table, and one woman comes next to the [table] looking at something [on the shelves],” he said. “[While the woman is] looking at the shelves, she drops her sweater, picks it up and picks up the woman’s purse, goes through it, puts it back down and walks to her accomplice, all while these four women were sitting there chatting. It was amazing how they do that.”
Hahnlein told residents to be alert when they are anywhere in town; “we noticed that HomeGoods has been hit repeatedly” and the station might conduct an undercover operation at the store soon, he said.
In May, the station reported one robbery, six residential burglaries, three commercial burglaries and seven arrests.
The robbery involved someone trying to steal alcohol from a store, but they struggled to open the door to exit, and dropped the items and ran away.
The station also had a Flock camera-related vehicle recovery, in which a suspect was arrested and was carrying methamphetamine, stolen credit cards and burglary tools.
Hahnlein said that the station has also started working closely with the Glendale Police Department to combat the residential burglaries and collaborate to find the suspects.
“We’ve noticed that on these residential burglaries, Pasadena gang members are being identified as some of these partners as well as the South American crews,” he said. “And I think we noticed a little decrease in some of the burglary activity, because they [have been] identified and they’re making arrests on these guys.”
Additionally, the station has increased its patrols in June, and working closely with the station’s crime analyst to identify which areas and what times of the day the burglaries are occurring.
Recently, the station, working with another station, has found a burglary deterrent device, a clear security film that can be put on sliding glass doors to delay break-ins. The film is invisible to the naked eye and cannot be easily detected.
“It takes about three to five minutes to actually break through this stuff with someone smashing it with an ax or baseball bat,” he said. “So, it’s going to take a little while longer, and it does not obstruct your view out the window.”
Hahnlein said that he hopes the station can collaborate with a company and make a presentation for the council.
To learn more about the city’s security camera rebate program, visit cityoflcf.org/public-safety/.
First published in the June 27 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
