Local thieves partly responsible for an increase in the number of home break-ins around Los Angeles have adopted high-tech tactics police first observed being used by so-called tourist burglars to disable security systems and remotely surveil target homes.
“They’re replicating the tactics and MO of the South American burglary crews, using jammers, and more sophisticated pre-incident surveillance,” LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said Tuesday, describing the modus operandi of some LA-based burglary crews arrested during recent investigations.
“They may have cameras laid out on the property or on a car parked on the street across from the target house for a period of time, to be able to determine a pattern of life, to determine when a person is going to be home, when they’re going to be gone,” he said.
Police said they recently discovered some of the stake-out cars, including Teslas, that have built-in cameras that can be remotely monitored, and other types of cars, with small cameras aimed towards streets and homes of interest.
Those and other techniques, such as the severing phone and data utility lines, have been seen by detectives investigating some of the recent residential burglaries in Encino and the west San Fernando Valley.
The overall number of property crimes reported in the city were down nearly 7% year to date, but within those incidents, the number of burglaries rose slightly, and among those, the number of residential burglaries rose in recent weeks by about 6%, accounting for about 40 additional home break-ins, the LAPD said.
Recent crime data for the Encino and west Valley areas has not been made available by the LAPD, so it’s not clear how many home burglaries have occurred in those areas.
Earlier this month American Idol music supervisor Robin Kaye and her husband Thomas Deluca were shot to death inside their home when police said the couple interrupted a burglary-in-progress minutes after officers were unable to confirm a report of a break-in on the couple’s property.
Three days after the couple’s bodies were discovered another homeowner in Encino shot and wounded an intruder during an early-morning burglary. The LAPD says the 14-year-old prowler was arrested after paramedics were called to treat a gunshot wound.