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At the close of the year, a crime wave that has targeted South Asian homes in Cupertino in 2005--and possibly longer--has slowed. Only one home was burgled in December. Even so, authorities caution that the problem may not have gone away.
"It goes in cycles," said Capt. John Hirokawa of the Santa Clara County West Valley Substation. "It's premature to say if it's linked to residential burglaries going down."
The December crime resembled the approximately 50 other burglaries of Indian-American homes this year. The evening of Dec. 3, a burglar entered a locked house by breaking the glass in a sliding door and then ransacked the house and took $5,000 in jewelry from the master bedroom.
Such burglaries, which spiked at 18 last January, target jewelry kept in the homes, with jewelry in master bedrooms popular with thieves.
As a result, the substation organized two community forums on the issue. The most recent in November resulted in frustration, with community members asking for more to be done and authorities--including the FBI--asking for help and looking for leads. At that forum, Hirokawa asked residents to be vigilant by noting any unusual activity or unfamiliar vehicles.
Since then the crime wave has slowed.
"We don't know if somebody got arrested somewhere else," he said.
In the meantime, he said Cupertino residents should continue to be careful--especially because a number of solicitors were cited the first week of December for not having a permit. One of those solicitors was found inside a home uninvited.
"They have changed their tactics and now are using young female adults from out of state to go door-to-door," Hirokawa said of the solicitors. "Male or female, [residents] shouldn't be opening their door to them. We have to be careful."
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