Quick report on the robbery at 11619 Jennifer Court East. As reported by Eric Hrivnak.

It was a quick grab of items sometime between 0900-1600 on 13 JAN 2015.  Guessing 2 people who wore gloves because there were no prints.  One had to be slender or small because entry had to be through a medium size dog door.  No door or windows broken. Somehow they got our new dog Luna locked into the laundry room.  The dog is not well trained but is aggressive to strangers.

The big item they got was Julie’s jewelry which included her engagement ring.  Some of the kids stuff including x-box and piggy banks. Julie thinks they got spooked by something when they got on the top floor, because the computer was moved but left with 2 IPADS next to it.

For what they grabbed they may have only been in the house  10 minutes.

I talked to a detective who does not work for Pierce County.  He said the best way to stop this is cameras that record the people in the act.  He said the all police forces are overworked and under scrutiny so personal property theft has very low priority.  Personal Property theft is up 40% in the Seattle area.  Communities have to protect themselves and rely on good neighborhood watches.

I almost bought the Costco cameras 6 weeks ago on sale, but procrastinated looking at other products that would best fit our house.  Cameras and security system will be installed this week. Too little, to late.

I will also network with Kirk’s system when he find a good camera for the system.

This should be a wakeup call for everyone.  If robbers will go into our cul-de-sac with only one way in and out and a big sign at the top of the hill saying they are being watched, they will go to any corner of our neighborhoods to rob.  Everyone should get a camera system ASAP.

Julie said there is a possibility they may have been on foot because what was taken was small and could be carried in a backpack.  They may have walked thru the empty lot with the big concrete slab to our south.  Maybe a parked car on the other side out of camera range on 136th, or live in the neighborhood.

As an addendum to Eric’s report — Most people don’t think of dog doors as an entry way into their houses, but obviously they are.  If you do have or plan to have an animal door installed in your home, make certain that you can securely LOCK the door when you are not home, or at night. The fact that the robbers did not leave any prints indicates to me that these people have done this before.  They will do it again and again until they are caught in the act. Thank goodness Julie was not at home when these people broke in.

Today around 10AM I received a text message  which said  “HELLO, VERY IMPORTANT Delivered-by Bank OF America..Call our office 4127951030. 5-MINUTES REQUIRED.”

Then I got a second message about 5 min later which said “IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED. Delivered byBank OF America.. Call our office 4127951030. VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE”

Being of a suspicious nature (perhaps also due to the fact that Bank of America doe s not have my cell phone number) I first looked up the area code (Area code 412 is a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania telephone area code which serves Pittsburgh, most of surrounding Allegheny County and small portions of Washington and Westmoreland counties.) Then I looked up the Bank of America number on the Internet and called them.  Surprise –  They had no knowledge of any message sent me, by text or any other form.

Bottom line – This was obviously a SCAM.  I never called the number, but if I had I might have found myself rerouted to a very expensive overseas line where I probably would be put on hold and charged some phenomenal amount for the long distance call.   — Always look up a number or web site yourself.  Never click on links embedded in messages, without confirming them with the supposed sender. Don’t call unknown phone numbers  Be safe.

Below is information I received from one of our neighbors on Jennifer Court:

On Jan 2 at 5:30 PM, my husband went to walk our little dogs on Jennifer Ct. E.  In the cul-de-sac.  A blue SUV came flying down the hill.  He went out of control near the top of the hill and squealed brakes all the way down trying to regain control.  Patrick. was standing by a log off the road and he thought the car was going to hit him.  He yelled at the driver as he slid around at the bottom and headed up the hill the same way he came down.  Julie Hrivnak came out to see what all of the tire squealing was all about.  Shortly after the blue SUV was gone, a dark pick up came down driving very fast and when he saw Patrick standing by our mailbox, he took off right back up the hill.  Neither of these vehicles had any reason to be in our area.  It does not sound good.

The link below will lead you to a KEYE TV (Texas)  News report about how thieves are breaking into houses.

As a home, business or property owner, there’s many ways that people can take from you. People take your property, they take your money and they take your time. One clear way to understand what motivates and deters burglars is to simply ask them. So researchers at UNC Charlotte did just that. They interviewed more than 400 convicted offenders that resulted in an unprecedented look into the minds of burglars. Below are some insights.
• First, it is clear that many that were surveyed were seasoned offenders. The overall sample of respondents reported being arrested from 1 to over 100 times in the past.
• Close proximity of other people, lack of escape routes, and indicators of increased security (alarms, dogs, and outdoor cameras or other surveillance equipment) were considered by most burglars when selecting a target.
• Within a broad set of potential target deterrents, alarms and outdoor cameras and other surveillance equipment were considered by a majority of burglars.
• About 60% of the burglars indicated that the presence of an alarm or security camera would cause them to seek an alternative target altogether. This was particularly true among the subset of burglars that were more likely to spend time deliberately and carefully planning a burglary.
• Most burglars would try to determine if an alarm or surveillance system was present before attempting a burglary. Among those that determined that an alarm was present after initiating a burglary, about half would discontinue the attempt.
• Among those who discovered the presence of an alarm while attempting a burglary, half reported they would discontinue the attempt, while another 31 percent said they would sometimes retreat. Only 13 percent said they would always continue with the burglary attempt.
• Just over a fourth of burglars typically worked alone and approximately the same proportion reported never burglarizing alone. Among those who worked with others, most committed burglaries with friends and/or spouses/significant others, although nearly one in eight reported working with other family members.
With a Surveillance system you’re well on your way to securing both your home and your safety from the threat of a home invader. The study “Understanding Decisions to Burglarize from the Offender’s Perspective, was conducted by UNC Charlotte researcher Joseph Kuhns from the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology)

On Sunday 21 December I received the following e-mail from one of our neighbors:

Thanks for your email on mail tampering. It appears that someone went through all the Sunrise Terrace additions after Saturday’s mail delivery. Today, My husband and I were out walking and found mail from 5 households. Most of the mail had already been opened and tossed in the street,
We found mail along Military that belonged to a house just below 138th St. We also found mail scattered along the streets in the 5th addition (south side of 122nd) that belonged to 3 houses near the intersection of 136th and 122nd. We also found mail on Shawnee Rd that belonged to a house on 136th Ave.
We returned everything we found and noticed that the homes did not have locking boxes, with the exception of one. Thanks for getting the word out. My hope is that the more locking boxes we have the less tempting our neighborhood will be.

This morning Val Okazaki wrote me to say that she had found mail addressed to the Dalys (11711) on the ground in front of the Helmers (11701) on 136^th Ave. E. .  Further south on 136^th she found more mail addressed to 11739 and 11712.  She is getting it to its intended recipients.  She said there were additional signs of mail tampering but she did not go north of 117^th on 136^th, so there may be more.

If you suspect that your mail has been tampered with please send me an e-mail to kahalljr@comcast.net. If your house is in range of any of our cameras I will attempt to check for strange cars/people stopping at your mailboxes.

I was informed today that outgoing mail had apparently been stolen from several boxes on 136th Ave. E.

The mailman told one of the homeowners that there had been several mail thefts lately.  If you have had mail stolen please contact Kirk Hall at  kahalljr@comcast.net or leave a comment.