Door to Door casing of homes, robbery

Resent by Chuck, incident also reported at the Arden Manor Neighbors FB group by a Mayfair resident:

Everyone needs to keep an eye out for 2 husky built men going door to door together, one Caucasian and one African American. Yesterday the mail man told me that a resident down Mayfair witnessed an attempted robbery by these men. They are going door to door in the middle of the day seeking unattended houses. This morning I noticed an early 90's model light brown Toyota(?) truck that I have never seen before parked out front of my house. A large African American male with a bald head walked up towards my house with a phone book in a ripped orange plastic bag. My house looked like no one was home because the cars were gone but when he heard my dogs and saw me he tossed the bag and hopped in his car and drove off. He may have been just a delivery man but why did no one else on my street get a phone book? How random and very suspicious. Everyone needs to take extra precautions while they are away from their homes. I notified the police right away.

Two houses on Mayfair got broken into recently, one through a bathroom window. I compared what I witnessed with another neighbor and the description seems to be the same man. I was checking out my house to see what could of caught his eye, I had my front window wide open. This neighborhood used to be safe.

Attempted Abduction behind Whole Foods

A grown woman was nearly abducted behind Whole Foods on Monday around 8:30 PM. There is an alley behind the shopping center that is commonly used by neighborhood residents. She was headed toward the alley after a visit to Baskin Robbins.

She was approached by a man in a white vehicle (she was too scared to remember a good description of the vehicle, though she remembers it was white and was either a car or small SUV). She described him as having a buzz haircut, of mixed race with facial pockmarks and wearing glasses. She said she wasn't interested in whatever he was saying and he forced her up against a wall, but she was able to escape. He was not armed.

The incident was reported to the Sheriff's Department. Due to negative feedback last time I sent to the e-mail network, this will not be sent via e-mail.

Suspicious Activity, Burglary, Aggressive Scavenging

Suspicious Activity (possible casing for burglary)

Reported by the Cowan neighborhood watch group:

Last night at 3:15 AM there was an older white Honda that should not have been in our neighborhood.

It was not the paper delivery, there were four grown men in the car.

They were parked on Brookwood by North Edge and Regent snooping.

A neighbor went out to see what was going on and the sped off.

I have no plate # to share, but please be on the lookout.

This happened because a neighbor heard something and checked it out.

Please pass this on.

Vehicle Burglary

7-11 2800 block Verna way (reported by resident/victim)

Wanted to let you know that my car was broken into last night 2800 block of Verna Way. The thieves took my daughters black Tory Burch diaper bag and inside it had a very sentimental watch. They also left at the scene 3 other purses that were not ours. Appears they hit a few other folks as well. Sheriff took the items left that did not belong to us.

Aggressive Scavengers

7-11 Carrisa, Loreto and Kings Way

Around 10-1130 AM two individuals pulling a cart, one male adult possibly Hispanic or Asian with a shaved head and dark chin hair, and a white female adult with sandy blonde hair in a pony tail and missing teeth wearing a white shirt, were approaching houses and going through not only recycle cans, but all waste cans as reported by a resident. The sheriff's dept was called and a unit was seen in the area within 15 minutes. It is unknown whether the deputy made contact with the trespassers, as it was last seen driving in the opposite direction from the individuals were headed (they were going toward Watt Avenue).

The scavengers were told that they were trespassing by stepping on the property of the homeowner to retrieve anything from the waste cans and that they sheriff's dept had been called.

The male said thanks for the warning, but reportedly continued to walk up to houses and rummage through cans as they headed for Watt avenue.

[Note: Why do we care about scavengers? The Sheriff's department has asked us to report them. Their presence in your neighborhood lowers your property value. Their theft of county revenue will eventually lead to higher taxes for you. They're a crime risk--if you've tossed bills in your garbage can and they retrieve them, they may steal your identity, and when they get more aggressive they can commit burglary. Finally, they don't always limit themselves to your recycling or garbage. Some will steal any metal they can remove from your property.]

Recent Incidents

Commercial Burglary

Emigh hardware was burglarized monday night/tuesday morning, between 12 midnight and 2 am. The thieves cut the lock on a fire gate between the Kensington apartments and gained access to the rear buildings. Approx 2-3 individuals were involved as shown by video surveillance, and they got away with approx $5000 in merchandise.

Car Burglaries

Shortly after 2am, the Kensington apartments courtesy patrol discovered that three vehicles had windows broken and most likely had been burglarized.

Church Burglary

Those of you that live in the north part of the neighborhood probably found a booklet with a flyer in it on your porch. A week and a half ago, the Church or Scientology building, located at 3825 Marconi was burglarized, (as reported by the sheriff cyberwatch). The staff are reaching out to try and establish a neighborhood watch program. I met with one person, explained what we have, and told them to ask if they wanted any help.

Vandalism

I just wanted to let you know that my car was vandalized about 4:00am this morning. Big rocks were thrown through my rear windshield and it looks as if they either hit the back of it or they were smashing the rocks as my tailgate, etc. were heavily damaged. I’ve filed an incident report and was wondering if you heard of anyone else having problems last night? Or possibly someone saw a green car racing thru the neighborhood? A neighbor saw a green car speeding out of the court, heard the noise but couldn’t see anything as it was dark. The car then came back and drove thru the court really fast.

A Victory for our Neighborhood

We've had a victory in our community. It has a bit of a back story.

At nearly 1:00 Am on June 21st, one of our community members was once again targeted by thugs for his efforts to help keep criminals out of our neighborhood. His household was awakened by two loud bangs.

On examination, he found an improvised explosive device made from a Simply Lemonade bottle. He was able to determine the basic composition of the bomb, but we won't repost here to avoid imitation.

A check of the security cameras the resident maintains showed the 4-door sedan turn onto Ione Street from Eastern Avenue, make a U-turn, and drop the bomb near his vehicle before speeding off southbound on Eastern.

This was a deliberate act of terror meant to intimidate a member of our neighborhood watch.

Videos were made available through the mailing list, but are not shared here to help protect the victim of the attacks.

Fortunately for us, these guys decided to try it again, but this time didn't get away. The press release is here: http://www.sacsheriff.com/media/0629_explosives.cfm

June 29, 2011

Two Arrested for Explosive Devices in Carmichael

Earlier this morning, Sheriff’s deputies arrested two men in connection with the explosion of a device at a private residence in Carmichael. Scott Barney and Phillip Fernandez, both 23 years old, were booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail for charges including vandalism, conspiracy, possession of a destructive device, and felony child endangerment.

Just after midnight today, an audible alarm sounded at a home in the 4300 block of Vulcan Drive. The resident of the home also called the Sheriff’s Department, reporting what sounded like a loud explosion moments earlier. An additional call from a neighbor stated that he observed someone place an unknown object in the victim’s mailbox before getting into a vehicle that left the scene. The neighbor also reported hearing the explosion just after he witnessed the suspect place the object inside the mailbox.

Within ten minutes, a deputy observed a vehicle matching the description given by the witness at Arden Way and Eastern Avenue. An enforcement stop was conducted on the vehicle, which was occupied by suspects Barney and Fernandez, and two other juvenile males, ages 8 and 13. Inside the vehicle, deputies observed what appeared to be four plastic bottles with a white powdery substance inside. At that point, deputies detained the occupants of the vehicle, and initiated a call-out to the Sheriff’s Explosive Ordnance Detail (EOD).

EOD detectives responded and rendered the improvised devices safe. The two juveniles inside the suspect vehicle were determined not to be criminally liable, and were returned to the custody of adult relatives. In addition to the residence on Vulcan Drive, patrol deputies found another residence in the 1800 block of Saint Anne Court where a similar device had been placed inside a mailbox.

Barney and Fernandez are each being held on $1,000,000 bail and are expected to be arraigned later this week.

Deputy Jason Ramos,
Sheriff's Spokesman

Scott Barney (03/16/1988)

Phillip Fernandez (02/13/1988)

Several Incidents

3700 block of Duran Circle (Auto Theft)

On Sunday, between the hours of 12 midnight and 4 am, Sunday, a car was stolen. The residents had left the doors unlocked. The Sheriff's department made them aware by calling at 4:10 AM. Apparently the thief took the car to a vacant house on Kentfield near Watt Avenue to syphon gas out of the tank. When a neighbor noticed the activity, they called the sheriff dept. Some items were stolen, including a garage door opener, but the car was recovered and a thief was arrested.

3700 block of Kings Way (Breaking in and Entering)

At approx 10:30PM Sunday night, a very thin person cut the screen to an open window leading to the garage. The opening is small, roughly 16X16 inches and faces Kings Way. The intruder moved things around, but according to the resident nothing was taken.

2800 block of Alamitos (Vehicle Vandalism)

At approx 12:30AM-1AM on Monday morning, a crash was heard. When the resident went out to investigate, she observed a newer, silver SUV speed away. She then noticed a rock in the driveway and the window of their truck (parked behind a gate) had been broken.

Kensington Apts. on Kings Way (Vehicle Burglaries)

During the Sunday night/Monday morning period, several vehicles had “window smash” burglaries.

Below is a flyer of a missing teen from the Del Campo High School area. Clicking on it will bring up the full sized flyer with phone numbers to call if you see her.

Carmichael Theft

From Chuck

This was taken from the FB Carmichael watchgroup site and occurred on May 30. Updated info with photos came up, so I thought I might post them and the info.

Just as in the Lapaz burglary a couple of years ago, the more eyes out there the more information that can be gathered.

05/30/2011: Memorial day. Landis Ave. This Guy stole our garden equipment out of our shed. Security cameras witnessed him checking our curbside mail box to see if we were home. Then he looked in our windows and checked around the house for unlocked doors. He found our gas powered lawn equipment and loaded it into his cherry red hummer. He was careful not to trigger our alarm system, but he was unaware of our cameras. There is not doubt that if he saw something he wanted when he looked in the windows he would have broken in…it took him 9 minutes from arrival to departure.

This is the Cherry red hummer that the guy drove who took our garden equipment. (see previous posts) Heads up to everyone who has rural style mailboxes in Carmichael. This guy seemed to have a theft routine down that is triggered by unclaimed mail in mail boxes.