alert: burglary at north point today (10/03/04 Sunday) - Treasure Island Living - All - 94130net - Message Board - Yuku

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alert: burglary at north point today (10/03/04 Sunday)

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squ	alert: burglary at north point today (10/03/04 Sunday)	Lead	[-]
Posts: 4 (10/03/04 18:03:13) More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None My apartment was broken in today around 11am-1pm. They apparently came in from the back yard door and entered the room through either one of the windows or the slicing door. Three laptops (Compaq, IBM and SONY), two cameras (Canon digital rebel and Canon EOS ELANII) and two DVD players (Toshiba and one with some other brand) were taken, along with some other stuff. My Compaq computer has lots of important work and the DVD player has my son's favorite baby Einstein disk. I was told by the police officer that there are lots of burglaries lately on the island, about once every week. Since there have been so many, crime scene personnel was called in. One of my neighbors said that at about noon there was a teenage boy knocking at his door asking for someone that was not living in the unit. Be sure to lock your back door and all your windows.
moogle	stealing---	#1	[-]
Posts: 54 (10/03/04 22:21:08) More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	stealing is still the easiest way to get free stuff i guess... digi-rebel and elan ii... expenstive toys too... =(
BigBeare	Buglary	#2	[-]
Posts: 318 (10/03/04 23:13:32) More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	It's not much help now, but for the future, I reiterate these tips: (1) Lock your windows unless you're right there in front of them. Put a dowel in the track so the window can't be slid open. (2) Lock your sliding door unless you're right there in front of it. Put a dowel or a cut broomstick in the track so the door can't be slid open. (3) Leave your blinds partly open in such a way so that people looking in from the outside can't see when you're home or not. (4) Leave several lights on at night whether you're home or not. (5) Make sure to file a police report about any burglary or attempted break-in. Whether you think it's trivial or not, reporting the break-in is important because the more burglaries are reported the better the SPPD can do to figure out trends and find the perpetrator. ALSO, the more incidents that are logged the more the SFPD is likely to schedule officers for duty out here. Also, as far as laptops go, if at all possible password protect not only the operating system (Windows or whatever), but also the BIOS, which you can usually get by hitting F2 when booting up. A computer with a locked BIOS and a locked OS will usually require that the hard drive be removed in order for it to function. People who fence computers aren't likely to want to go to all this hassle, so they'll be less likely to want to buy computers from the burglar in the future, eventually making the laptop less desirable to steal. In fact, just the other day some guy called me up about his "dead" computer. Turned out to have belonged to a bank, and with the OS and the BIOS locked, he couldn't get past the login screen. I looked over the computer and told him there was no way to fix it without dismantling the computer. He told me that someone else had told him that, too. He said, "Man, I'll never buy another bargain laptop at the flea market." So, one less stolen laptop customer. Anyhow, points to ponder.
Unregistered(d)	Questions for Beare	#3	[-]
Posts: 0 (10/04/04 10:26:22) More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	In your opinion, and from what you have found out over your time on the island, do you think that the locks on the windows are effective? We have the two-lock system on the windows (one high and one low) where up on both means the window is open, and down on one or both means it is locked. Also, I know that you have mentioned the fact that the sliding doors on a lot of units are on the outside (when, for security, they should be on the inside). Do you think the dowel system on doors on the outside track is effective? Personally, I have the items that I consider to be most likely to be enticing to a thief in a room that has a key lock on it. My thinking is that a thief that wants to get in and out quickly will not spend time trying to pick the lock or breaking the door. But, of course, I could be wrong. Lastly, while I agree with your point about password protecting the BIOS on a computer as well as the operating system (to help ensure that information that needs to be secure does not get into the wrong hands), I don't know as that would be a deterrent to the thieves that have done these break-ins. They seem to want to get in and get out ASAP, and with the smallest, most expensive, most sale-able merchandise. They will probably not check the laptops to make sure that they can operate them... they will probably just take them. The only way to use this as a theft deterrent (it would seem) is to have a notice on the outside of the laptop itself, stating that the OS and BIOS are both password protected. This might at least force the thieves to start-up the computer and see if it is in fact true (and they might leave it behind if it is true). Bottom line... password protect both to keep personal information safe, but don't expect a thief to know that you have done that or to check. By the way, if there are any police or other security specialists monitoring this thread, it would be good to hear from you as well...
BigBeare	Security	#4	[-]
Posts: 318 (10/04/04 20:59:06) More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Since the apartments were built at at least 3 different times, thing vary, of course. In some typical units, the window locks are fairly secure and there are also little blocks along each track that can be pulled out to block the further movement of the window beyond being open just enough to let a little air in. The sliding door locks are pretty much useless as far as the units I've visited because the glass is pliable just enough to push it in and defeat the lock. This is where the broomstick in the track comes in handy. As for the doors hanging the wrong way, I thought I'd heard at a community meeting that the Villages maintenance people were going to rehang them on request. I might have mis-heard, though. As I recall there weren't many doors hung backwards. As landlord, the Villages actually has a reponsibility to provide secure locks for each apartment. So, the burden is on them to make things reasonably secure. The saving grace is that the apartments are close enough together that a burglar is probably not going to risk the sound of breaking glass in order to burglarize a place. They know the police would be here very fast. They look for crimes of opportunity. And as for password protecting computers, I'm thinking of this as a longer-term solution. If someone steals laptops on a regular basis around here (and this community is probably loaded with laptops), and they keep encountering locked-up computers that they can't fence, they'll probably stop stealing them. A similar thing happened some decades back when the London Underground got tired of people ripping off the light bulbs in the subway. I'm told that they solved this by using odd-sized bulbs that were useless for home use. And after awhile people stopped stealing them. That's the idea anyhow.
squ	two kids caught by the police	#5	[-]
Posts: 4 (10/04/04 22:13:30) More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	One dell computer was recovered. One of them lives on the island, and they know each other. Too bad it was not mine computer. They also took my car key as well and I had to have my car ignition system rewired. Plus I added a big steering lock. Hope they will be discouraged.
McGruff	Description of potential suspect	#6	[-]
Posts: 6 (10/07/04 05:36:27) More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Yesterday (Wednesday) a little before 5 PM, my roommate was startled by a knock on our door. At the door was a young man who asked her if she was interested in buying a box of cookies to support a children's Halloween festival in Oakland. My roommate politely declined and then immediately called the SFPD (way to go!). At the time, there was no car parked in our driveway and it looked like no one was home. The following description was provided to the police: Male, early teens, African American, clean-cut, very short hair, braces on his teeth, wearing jeans and a navy blue top (t-shirt or sweatshirt), duffle bag on his shoulder. Articulate, but also nervous, maybe because of our dog barking at him. This is not the most exacting description, but I would encourage anyone seeing an individual matching this description to immediately contact the SFPD regarding a potential suspect in the recent string of burglaries on the island. I want to emphasize that this young man was greeted with suspicion only because of the MO of those responsible for the recent string of break-ins, and it would be a true shame if he was merely an innocent kid trying to raise a few bucks for a good cause. But it was very odd that he did not knock on any of our neighbors' doors (we checked.....), and so we think our suspicion is warranted.
MedicRob	re: break in's	#7	[-]
Posts: 4 (10/07/04 12:28:48) TI Nert Coordinator More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	we caught the kids the other day. they are in police custody. they had a lap top in their possession. if you are missing a laptop call the police and go see if it's yours. also. if you are interested in taking part in a neighborhood watch program let me know.
McGruff	kids	#8	[-]
Posts: 6 (10/08/04 05:28:28) More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	You caught SOME kids....there might be others.

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