It’s not just those who park their cars on the streets in West Hollywood who have to worry about them being broken into. The video above, taken Wednesday night in the underground garage of a building on Kings Road, shows an intruder looking for valuables in the cars of residents of that building.
“In the past year, my car has been vandalized four times – with the right rear tire being punctured with screws,” said the resident who provided the video to WEHOville.
“We informed the Weho Sheriff as we suspected the vandalism was occurring in our building garage. We installed security cameras above the spaces overlooking our cars. Last night, we captured an intruder in the building at 3:41 a.m. scanning both of our cars with a flashlight (wearing a hoodie and gloves) and then moving on to our neighbor’s Lexus.”
He said he was offering the video for publication “ … since it’s the holidays and people might leave packages in their cars. The video can serve as a warning for the community to take extra care to protect themselves.”
The West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station also is warning residents, especially those living in apartment complexes with a central mail room, “to retrieve their postal packages and mail promptly during the holiday season. Thieves are targeting these areas and removing unsecured holiday packages and in some instances, using duplicate mail keys to open entire walls of resident mail boxes and removing mail.”
And finally, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department recently offered tips for keeping your home safe, noting that residential burglaries have become a trend, with middle and upper middle class neighborhoods often targeted.
— Homeowners should try to give the impression someone is home at all times, which would include leaving a car in driveway, leaving lights on in and around the home at night. And leaving the TV or radio on to give the impression someone is home.
— Consider using commercial security services, including but not limited to video recording devices, which have become popular, inexpensive and easy to use.
— Use pets such a dog for property protection and to deter burglars.
— And most important, get to know your neighbors and look out for one another’s homes. If you see something suspicious, don’t just post it on Facebook — call the local Sheriff’s station at (310) 855-8850. That’s what anyone should do if he or she might be able to identify the man pictured in the video above
Kings Road and what? Would be helpful to know the cross streets
Between Willoughby and Waring avenues.
VERY TRUE! I’ve lived in my place 25yrs with only one instance of a “break-in” (Years ago another unit left a key under their door mat/rug. Our gardners must have found the key when the leaf blower blew their flimsy rug aside. A laptop was stolen, nothing else, and no sign of forced entry …Not an actual real crime) HOWEVER, the newer building next door, I was told has vandals & thieves in their Garage & storage units almost nightly. Then mailboxes farther west had a string of break inside. I felt totally safe. Earlier this year our mailboxes were… Read more »
You’d be surprised to know how few codes for garage door openers were ever changed from the factory setting; 1,2,3,4. A friend used an automatic opener he had just bought to see how many doors he could open by aiming it towards the door of random garages, and he found that ,many, many garages were easily accessible because the management had never bothered to set a unique code for they own garages.
Hello – thanks for the tips. Outside Ross this week I saw a homeless man bright daylight checking out cars. I asked him if he was looking to steal stuff. He said, “yes, if you leave your cellphone in the car I am looking for that. But just because I steal from someone else doesn’t mean I will steal from you.” He said pulling up his trousers and giving me a toothy smile. I gave him half my chocolate, more to help me from eating it. But, it occurs to me that what you see someone doing to another person… Read more »