Frankly I'm tired of people making themselves easy targets by leaving their cars unlocked or with items to steal in plain sight or making their homes so easy to get into. But I guess I should thank them since I've never had either my car or home broken into given the easy pickings all around.

I'm seeing a lot of discussions on a rash of home burglaries lately in MV, but I never see them reported here. Crime briefs seems to be VERY spotty, depending on the crime?

We park our vehicles unlocked in our driveway and leave nothing of value in them, not even the glove compartments. And we never ever leave our garage door openers in them. That's just begging to be burgled. And when not in use, which is most of the time, we disable remote opener access to our garage door so it only can be opened from the switch inside the garage.

If more folks had security cameras, they would be both a deterrent and help in catching the crooks.

Here's the real story with more and better information from Los Altos Online: Web Link

Dear reporter,

Auto burglaries... Not vehicle thefts!

Journalism 101 is your friend.

Every other year or two there is a rash of a half dozen or dozen auto break-ins in my area. I think it may be related to other burglary rings where they pick a spot hit it and move on. Noticed strings of auto break-ins from Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Meno Park. Each city is experiencing this. Mountain View has had a rash of breakins at the high school, at Sylvan, on border with Sunnyvale, Century 16 parking lot and Costco MV parking lot. They are just rotating locations.

Keeping cars locked without valuables is a good precaution, but it isn't foolproof. Mountain View needs to focus on these crime rings. Maybe have city cams at some of the most frequently hit locations. Focus on this instead of only reacting after the fact.