A disturbing crime wave has some residents in the usually quiet Rancho Park neighborhood on edge, and they’re hoping city officials can finally address the problem before it goes too far.
Neighbors say it all started when the elderly owner of a home at the end of the street was in the hospital for an extended period of time. The property, which was visibly vacant as it quickly became overgrown with vegetation, subsequently became a target for quarters.
“People broke in repeatedly, stole a bunch of stuff and started squatting there,” said Alex, a man down the street.
When the owner died, the squatters stayed, and that’s when neighbors say the incidents really escalated.
“More burglaries, there was an assault with a deadly weapon on someone trying to get in, cars were stolen, wheels were stolen from cars,” Alex said. “So this is a network of people committing crimes and targeting abandoned homes and using it as a breeding ground to launch criminal activity.”
Police have been called to the neighborhood several times and at one point several squatters were arrested, but only for a short time before being released – even after allegedly breaking into someone’s home.
“They couldn’t prove they robbed anything and they ended up uncuffing them, going around the corner and coming back the next day and weeks,” said a woman named Gabriella.
She says she now feels nervous walking around her own neighborhood.
“I walk around a lot with my dog. I’m from New Jersey and I felt safer there than walking around this neighborhood,” she said. “I take pepper spray with me. I take it everywhere now.”
Alex says their efforts to involve city leaders have been unsuccessful so far, so he invested his own money to try to stop the thieves from breaking into his elderly neighbor’s home.
“I nailed things down and chained them up,” he said. “They tore it down again, they kept breaking in.”
He says two people were recently arrested after attacking one of the neighbors who tried to get in with bolt cutters and stop a burglary, but only after everything of value had been taken from the homes that were continually targeted.
“I pay a lot of taxes here, the property taxes and sales taxes are very high,” Alex said. “I would like to see this deter this crime, not just make it more lax, because that sends the message that people can go out and commit crimes unhindered.”
