The Ingleside Station issues a list of criminal acts in Glen Park that are reported to police; it’s posted periodically on the Glen Park Bulletin Board Yahoo group site. A review of this report from January through September of this year indicates that vehicular crime is a major source of criminal activity in the neighborhood.
Here are the statistics:
Stolen vehicle: 34
Theft from vehicle: 20
Recovered vehicle: 15 (unknown relationship between stolen and recovered vehicles)
Hit and run to vehicle: 12
Vandalism of vehicle: 8 (possibly underreported?)
Stolen license plate: 4
Recovered license plate: 3 (unknown relationship between stolen and recovered license plates)
Stolen bicycle: 2 (possibly underreported?)
For the sake of completeness, other crimes reported in the same period are:
Burglary: 37
Fraud: 13
Theft: 7
Battery: 5
Robbery/assault: 3
Armed robbery: 4
Miscellaneous: 11
All told, there were one or more incidents reported 133 days out of 273; or, almost every other day.
Next Door Glen Park is a site where one can take the pulse of neighborhood concerns. Judging from the postings between August and September, a lot of electronic ink is being spilled in angst over many types of vehicular crime.
To put it in context, one post cited the 2015-2016 San Francisco Civil Grand Jury report on auto burglary (break-ins): “Auto burglaries in San Francisco in 2015 cost residents and visitors $19 million in stolen goods. There were 24,800 reported incidents (around 70 per day), a 5-year high, but only 484 arrests. This represented a 34% increase over 2014.”
Below is an edited sampling of recent postings on Next Door Glen Park and nearby neighborhoods.
“Last night our old (car) was broken into and keys and sundries were taken.”
“At least 8 cars had windows broken last night on Sanchez St. between Randal and 30th…Seems to be pure vandalism; one car had a tennis racquet bag and expensive sunglasses in it that were not taken.
“My neighbor’s car had 2 windows smashed this morning in front of 1745.”
“We went out and looked at our car after seeing this post. Our car was hit too.”
“Found the back window of my (car) broken this morning on Mateo between Chenery & Arlington. My bad for leaving stuff in the back in plain view…”
“We have lived on Arlington Street for 20 years. In the last 6 months, my car has been broken into 3 times and my husband’s car has been broken into twice…Only once was there anything visible in the cars.”
“I had been cleaning a (car) generator in my garage…I left the garage for 10 minutes and the generator was gone when I returned.”
“My car was hit – no note…this is the second time I’ve had to deal with a nit and run – a $500 deductible is no joke.”
“A thief approached our car and looked under rear tire well. Then approached my (other) car and looked under rear tire well. He then fiddled with his phone and the lights and the car turned on and he unlocked the car!”
“Wow, I heard this was an emerging threat…I bet this isn’t exclusive to any particular model, but could include any electronic key fob.”
“My car was electronically hacked multiple times before I got (the dealer) to disable the keyless entry/proximity feature…No more break-ins!”
“They are frequently amplifying the signal of your own key fobs in the house. Keep them far from the front of house and/or put them in the freezer.”
“The simplest solution is to buy a key fob pouch on Amazon.”
“Another vandal on Laidley Street last night…The bolts were taken off the wheels and one of the wheels was almost removed so the car was inoperable.”
“They were most likely preparing to steal your wheels and tires but aborted the job.”
“Had my 1994 (car) stolen last night on Badger Street…”
All is not without hope, however. Several posts were along these lines:
“A police officer recommended requesting more frequent patrols. They’ll patrol more frequently for a while, but then we need to request it again. I think they’re pretty responsive!”
“Thanks to everyone on the block for being so supportive. What a great community of folks looking out for each other!”
To read the civil grand jury report on auto burglary: www.civilgrandjury.sfgov.org