As we draw closer to the holidays, we are continuing to see an increase in day time residential burglaries throughout our beautiful city. As our investigations unit continues to actively investigate each and every case, we’re continuing to seeing that the majority of these burglaries are occurring during the day when people are typically at work, as the suspect(s) enter unsecured rear yards, and enter un-occupied homes via an unlocked sliding glass, garage door, unlocked, or open windows. These suspects are simply looking for easy access to your homes. They typically take laptops, cash that’s been left out, iPods/iPads, and jewelry that they can quickly sell to a pawn shop for cash.

The pattern of these suspect(s) is that they usually knock at the front door to see if your home. When they get no response at the door, they move to the backyard and start checking for unlocked doors, removing screens, and checking for unsecured windows. If by chance you answer the door and ask what they want, the suspect(s) will come up with an excuse for being at your door, leave you scratching your head, and simply move on to the next quiet house. These burglars rarely travel alone and typically have at least one other person with them as the “look-out,” somewhere on the sidewalk, or riding around on a bicycle in the street. Of the more than a dozen arrests that our patrol staff and detectives have made in the past few months, the age range of the suspects has been 15 to 21-years-old.

You and your neighbors are the eyes and ears for the police department. Be vigilant of this behavior and don’t hesitate to call 911 for anything you believe to be suspicious activity in your neighborhood. Some of our recent arrests of these burglars have occurred because of a great neighbor who was observant and called in what they believed to be suspicious activity or in fact a burglary in progress. Our department is actively working on solving these crimes as we send undercover units out on a regular basis to patrol your neighborhoods and looking for subjects casing your neighborhoods.

Please share this information with your neighbors and help us in reducing these very intrusive crimes. Please lock your gates to your backyards and be sure to lock all doors and windows. If its with in your budget, burglar alarms are a very good deterrent. You can go to our website http://www.redwoodcity.org/police/ to see other great prevention tips and hotlines for reporting graffiti, crime tips, or parking enforcement. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter for facts and helpful resources to help keep your neighborhoods safe and beautiful.

— Ken Faljean
— Community Policing
— Redwood City Police Department