Auto burglaries increase in the Saratoga/Cupertino area

By Michelle Ku

While automobile burglaries in Saratoga have remained stable throughout 1999, similar crimes in Cupertino jumped last month.

Since January, Saratoga has had 54 auto burglaries. Seven were committed in April, 11 in May, six in June and seven in July.

In Cupertino, 26 percent--18 of the city's 70 burglaries--occurred in July. Three other burglaries were committed on Aug. 2 and Aug. 3.

While the burglaries are spread throughout Cupertino, two of the hardest-hit neighborhoods are Blaney Avenue north of Stevens Creek Boulevard and Prospect Road near De Anza Boulevard.

Nine auto burglaries took place in April, seven in May and six in June.

"With 18 burglaries in July and only 70 for the year, there's definitely an upswing," said Sgt. Bob Dixon of the Sheriff's Westside Substation. "Burglaries are definitely on the rise, but during the last two weeks it's slowed down a bit.

The number of burglaries has decreased, however, since the arrest of Cecil Bess on July 16, Dixon said.

Bess, of San Jose, was arrested for a burglary on Belknap Court in Cupertino. He was also arrested for possession of stolen property and possession of burglary tools.

He was spotted peering into automobiles with a flashlight, walking into an open garage and entering a parked vehicle, said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Hirokawa.

A neighbor was awakened by a motion detector light and called the sheriff's office after he saw Bess walk into a garage.

Most auto burglars are caught by alert citizens and deputies cruising the area, Hirokawa said. "If you wait five or six minutes, that's all it takes for them to be out of the area," he added.

The sheriff's office is still in the preliminary stages of investigating Bess' possible involvement in other auto burglaries in the area. "During a 10-day period, there were several burglaries in that neighborhood," said Sgt. Luther Pugh of the Sheriff's office.

Prior to Bess's arrest, the sheriff's office was investigating other suspects.

"We had someone else we were working on," Dixon said. "We went out, talked to him and put some fear into him. At the same time [Bess] was caught and then the burglaries went down."

The recent burglaries were committed by more than one person, Dixon said.

Burglars have used several different methods--smashing windows, using a screwdriver to pry open locks--to break into the cars. Sometimes they find cars that have been left unlocked.

Most of the burglaries were committed at night between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

One cause for the increase in auto burglaries is a sense of safety due to low crime, according to Pugh. "One person can cause a spike, especially if it's a neighborhood [in which] the residents are lax because of a perception of low crime," he said. "Things we would normally do, we neglect to do, like locking all the front doors, and of course side doors into garages. Even though we know these are unsafe practices, we sometimes get a little lax in our vigilance."

Because Mei Huang lives in a quiet area, she was shocked when her locked car, parked in Cupertino's West Hill Court, was burglarized the morning of Aug. 2.

The burglar set off the car's alarm when the rear driver's side window and back window were smashed. Nothing was stolen, however.

There were two paper shopping bags with used clothes in the car. "Maybe they felt there was something in there," Huang said.

Huang was amused the burglars broke the windows of her car rather than the one car parked behind hers.

"The car parked behind mine wasn't locked and the window was rolled down," she said. "But they weren't interested and they tried to break my window."

Sheriff's deputies are urging residents to be more cautious in hiding items left in their cars and locking car and garage side doors. Several of the cars were left unlocked with purses, wallets or laptop computers left in plain view.

One suspect burglarized a car on the street and then used the garage door opener to get into a garage to rob the car in there, Dixon said.

"There's always a lot of car burglaries," Hirokawa said. "What we're finding is that they have groups that move into and out of the area. Also, it could be juveniles who live in the area. It's a crime of opportunity."

Juveniles have not been observed committing burglaries.

"The things they are taking aren't juvenile type stuff--laptops, cell phones, CDs," Dixon said. "Juveniles can't pawn laptops as easily as an adult [can]."

Karin Dowdy commended for clean air efforts

District implements Safe Schools Tipline

Violinist Jennifer Wey

Ju Ju's Antiques

Saratoga Sampler

Sports Briefs

Los Gatos Dammit Run

Courtside Tennis Center teams win at NorCal