Saratoga News

Sheriff's office believes last summer's 'hot prowler' is back

Seven homes burglarized since Thanksgiving

Cash appears to be target

By Michelle Alaimo

This holiday season, burglars in Saratoga have been doing a little holiday shopping of their own--in Saratoga homes. Since Thanksgiving Day, at least seven homes in Saratoga have been burglarized or had attempted burglaries, and at least two of the incidents are thought to be related to a rash of burglaries experienced in the Arroyo De Arguello area this past summer.

Sgt. Jack Smith of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office Westside Substation said that the method used in two burglaries on Carniel Avenue in Saratoga on Dec. 2 and one on Phar Lap Drive in Cupertino on Dec. 8 fit the same method used in 14 burglaries on Aug. 29 and Sept. 2 in the Arroyo De Arguello area of Saratoga. The "hot prowler," as he is called by Sgt. Smith, is also thought to have burglarized a home in Cupertino on Clear Creek Court on Dec. 8.

The prowler is basically looking for cash, Smith said. He added that the burglar is using little or no force to enter the homes, many times entering through unlocked windows and doors.

In the two Carniel Avenue burglaries, one resident heard a noise in the early morning hours but said she did not think anything of it. Later, she reported finding muddy footprints in her daughter's room and found her daughter's jewelry box slung on the passenger seat of her car. The woman, whose daughter is away at college, could not determine if any property was taken.

The other resident, who reported an attempted burglary an hour later, came home and found his side gate unlatched and both of his dogs in the street. He told deputies he believed someone tried to come onto his property but was scared away.

The Dec. 8 Phar Lap Drive attempted burglary is similar to a Sept. 2 incident in Saratoga in which the burglar entered the home. In that incident, a woman said she saw a flashlight in her room and called out her husband's name. The suspect then turned off the flashlight and fled the home. In the Sept. 2 incident, a neighbor reported observing a man carrying a flashlight in her neighbors' home. The neighbor pushed a panic alarm, setting off an alarm at the sheriff's station.

The burglaries from the summer were performed in the same manner as the recent burglaries with the burglar striking seven houses each night, taking a total of about $1,000 cash.

"This individual is brazen enough to enter residences with people in them," Smith said told the Saratoga News this summer.

The sheriff's department advises residents to make sure their doors and windows are locked. Smith said patrols have been increased in the area. Anyone with information that may shed light on the burglaries is urged to call the Westside Substation at 867-9715.

[ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ]