I am the new Safety Director for VRNA. Let's hear it for keeping your garage doors down! Hooray! Compared to November's stats, homeowners in VRNA are making a great effort to keep the burglars OUT! Keep up the good work!
Bill Riley

Monday, Jan. 25, Albq. Journal reports that the mayor is starting a new APD unit to fight property crimes. One of the things he wants the unit to be able to do is execute warrants at night. I was a police sergeant for APD for 20 years and we were never able to get a judge to agree to sign warrants that would be served at night. We always had to wait until 6 am. I hope judges have changed, but I doubt it. The article reports there were 31,994 property crimes reported in Albq., in 2008. Please keep your overhead garage doors closed.

It also, always bears repeating that during the winter, auto theft goes up because people leave their cars running to warm up the interior.

I guess I'd rather shiver for a couple of minutes than have to track down a stolen car.

Add to that, the fact that for newer cars (in the last 10 years at least), they no longer need to "warm up" their engines.

Sorry I did not reply earlier, I was out for 2 months due to surgery. You had been experiencing a decrease in burglaries in your area, however, they appear to be on the rise. During graveyard hours on 2/10/10, we had several (8 or so) in the western part of your neighborhood (Borrego Creek, Avenida Vista Sol, etc) in which offenders broke windows out of vehicles and made quick "grab and runs". We have beefed up manpower for our burglary directive, which includes several specialized units assisting us. From the viewpoint of residents in the area, I cannot stress enough to take all valuables out of your vehicles (to include garage door openers, detachable face plates for stereos, paperwork that is difficult to replace or can be used for identity theft). Numerous burglary victims have still been leaving purses, computers, etc. in their vehicles for long periods of time. This creates an opportunity for an offender, who is debating whether or not to commit a crime, to pursue the crime based on the ease of obtaining property that he or she does not have to work hard to find. Please continue to ask questions of me on this site, call APD for suspicious activity, and look out for your neighbors.

Amen to the shiver in lieu of losing your car to a thief comment. We have utilized the media numerous times so that people are educated on auto theft prevention. If it is running and unattended, it will probably be stolen. I have to remind my teenagers about this constantly.

Lt., thanks for all of your help and advice.