Police address rash of break-ins Police address rash of break-ins (November 12, 2004)

Residents advised to keep doors locked

By Kathy Shrenk

Local police are warning residents of some of the safest neighborhoods in Silicon Valley that even they must actively protect themselves from violent criminals after three home invasions hit northern Santa Clara County.

Shaken by a pair of burglaries in the usually quiet neighborhoods of Los Altos and Mountain View, about 75 residents came to a community meeting Monday night hoping to have their fears allayed and questions answered. Detectives and chiefs from both police forces spoke to residents about the crimes and how to protect their homes and families.

A captain from the Palo Alto police department was also at the meeting at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, despite the fact that police say there is no connection between the two burglaries and the rape of a Palo Alto woman last week.

And although the three incidents are not related, police say there are enough similarities that Mountain View and Los Altos police are working side-by-side to solve the crimes. The two burglaries took place about three blocks from each other and at approximately 3 a.m. on separate Saturday mornings, said Mountain View Police Chief Scott Vermeer. And in each case, the intruder entered through an unlocked door, police said. There is no evidence any of the intruders had weapons.

The first burglary occurred on Aug. 28 on the 1400 block of Ernestine Lane, said Mountain View Detective Mike Mooney. In that incident, an 11-year-old woke up and found a strange man in the hallway outside her room. She screamed, retreated to her room, slammed the door and screamed some more. Her parents woke up and called police, Mooney said.

Police searched the neighborhood with canine forces, but lost the suspect.

More than two months later, on Oct. 30, a teenager awoke to find a man kneeling by her bed on the 300 block of North Clark Avenue, said Los Altos Police Sgt. John Hughmanick. Like the younger girl in Mountain View, she screamed and the intruder fled. In that case, police from all three cities searched the area but came up empty, he said.

Police in Mountain View aren't saying what the motive in the Ernestine Lane break-in was, but Los Altos police are calling the Clark Avenue burglary an attempted sexual assault.

In the most violent incident, a woman home alone on the 700 block of Alester Ave. near Palo Alto's Duveneck School, was raped by an intruder at around 2 a.m. last Friday, said Palo Alto Police Captain Torin Fischer.

Police from all three cities got together Monday night because these types of incidents are so rare, Los Altos Police Chief Don Johnson said. "In six years there hasn't been another incident like this in Los Altos," he said.

The break-ins got the attention of residents who "are fortunate to live in two safe communities (where) we don't see a lot of burglaries," Vermeer said.

Unfortunately, some folks get "complacent," he added. He said that 65 percent of the burglaries that have occurred in Mountain View this year happened when criminals came into the houses via open windows or unlocked doors.

Keeping doors and windows shut and locked and not leaving keys outside are probably the easiest and most important ways to keeping a house safe from burglary, police said.

"If you change your behavior just a little bit, you're much less likely to become victims," Johnson said.

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