As of Feb. 11, there have been 41 residential burglaries in Davis since Jan. 1. This is a noticeable increase from 36 in 2012 during the same time of year.
According to Lt. Glenn Glasgow of the Davis Police Department, these crimes are a combination of forced entries and thieves seizing the opportunity of open windows, doors and gates.
“We’ve gone through all of our residential burglaries with our crime analyst, and as of right now, we have not been able to predict a pattern or use crime predictions to determine where they’re going to hit next,” Glasgow said.
The crimes have been evenly dispersed throughout Davis and have been completely random, according to Glasgow.
Jessie Colonna, a fourth-year sociology major and resident of North Davis, became a victim of property crime when a birthday gift from her mother was stolen from a UPS delivery outside of her home. Colonna returned home from a weekend in San Francisco to find an empty box on her doorstep and her gift stolen.
“I never thought that someone would be like, ‘Hey, a package’ and rip it open,” Colonna said. “It’s just mean.”
Colonna didn’t report the incident because she had little faith that the Davis Police would be able to do anything to recover her stolen property. Her first instinct was to search Craigslist to see if her gift was being sold online, but she was unsuccessful.
“As of now, there’s nothing I can do, and there’s nothing [the police] can do,” Colonna said.
Previous to the theft, Colonna and her roommates were cautious about locking doors and windows. For additional protection, Colonna put up fabric over her windows, blocking anyone’s view into her room, which is located at the front of the house.
“I definitely feel like there should be more cops in Davis,” Colonna said. “I wish the town of Davis monitored neighborhoods better, but I also realize that is unlikely.”
Lynn N. Simon, a local Davis resident, lives in a neighborhood in South Davis which has organized a neighborhood watch. The neighborhood watch circulates emails and phone calls to all the residences to make sure everyone is aware of any activity that is out of the ordinary.
Simon said she has been more vigilant about setting the alarms in her home, and locking the dog door in addition to precautions she took before the recent spike in burglaries.
“More eyes on the street is the key issue,” Simon said. “It’s about seeing something and not ignoring it.”
According to Glasgow, community members can protect each other by being aware of their surroundings and looking for things that just don’t look right. Things to look out for include unfamiliar vehicles, parked cars with people in them, people loitering and suspicious solicitors.
“If you see anything, call us, because that’s our job,” Glasgow said.
SYDNEY COHEN can be reached at city@theaggie.org.
