Police Respond to Recent Citizen Break-In Concerns

  Henderson Police Official

Comments on Sun City Anthem & Solera 

Recent Break-Ins

 

 

There have been burglaries in Solera and SCA over the past two weeks. They are centered around early to late afternoon times and none of the crimes have been when people have been home. The information below is the most recent that I have as of Monday the 19th of September. I am not aware of the issues at the grocery stores. Please encourage people to make police reports when things that are described in the email you forwarded me take place. We have increased patrols in SCA and Solera.

There have been three burglaries in SCA on 8/29, 9/6, and 9/8. All three were during the day and the front door was damaged. We are investigating six similar cases in Solera over the past two weeks.

From a preliminary look at the reports and times, I assume the burglaries were by the same person(s). No residents were home in any of the burglaries and because a couple of them are within a short time span, the suspects may have been in that area and observed homeowners leaving their houses and/or knocked on the door and did not receive a response from anybody inside the home.

Just as a reminder that the crime of Burglary is “the entering of a structure to illegally take items belonging to another.” Robbery is “the taking of items, from another person through fear or force.” All of the crimes listed in this e-mail are clearly “burglaries” since nobody was confronted by the suspect(s).

The Henderson Police Department recommends that neighborhoods participate in the Neighborhood Watch Program and our Community Relations Bureau (CRB) may be contacted at (702) 267-5100 to assist in organizing a Neighborhood Watch for the area. CRB also conducts CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) inspections of individual homes -- free of charge  -- to identify items that homeowners can do to “harden” their target and make their homes less attractive to thieves. 

Since these thieves were probably driving or walking around SCA and Solera, I highly encourage the residents to always be vigilant and call 3-1-1 to report suspicious vehicles and/or people in their neighborhoods. If solicitors are knocking on the doors, also call 3-1-1 to report them so they can be identified by the police and be confirmed to be operating legitimately. If there is a knock on the door, be sure to ask who it is and through the closed and locked door, advise that you are not interested. This will let a burglar know people are present in the home. If no response is made to the knock, they may assume the house is empty, making the house a possible target.

If they continue to insist on talking to you after you have advised you are not interested, tell them to leave and that you are calling the police; then call 9-1-1.  There are also affordable products on the market which consist of a doorbell/camera system which can be connected to your Wi-Fi and you will then be alerted to a doorbell ring from an ‘application’ on your phone. You may then choose to “answer” the doorbell from any location in the world where you have access to internet service. In that way, if you happen to be away from your house, you can still talk to the person with two-way communication, making the person at the door think people are inside the home. This type of system also allows you to do this if you are within your home, eliminating the need for the resident to approach the door to see who is outside.

One of the best ways to identify suspects is by having serial numbers of items stolen. When thieves take an item with a serial number and pawn or sell it, police officers have much a greater chance of recovering those items and identifying the suspects if we have the serial numbers available. We always encourage the use of https://reportit.leadsonline.com/ to list your valuables and serial numbers in case you are ever burglarized. This a free service and you are the only one who has access to the items you have listed. 

Through our training on Neighborhood Watch, residents will learn the best way to patrol and report suspicious activity. The Henderson Police Department would never encourage or expect citizens to actually confront suspicious people or situations. Always stay at a safe distance, get a good description of the person’s clothing and vehicle and call 3-1-1 / 9-1-1 when appropriate.

Working together we can make difference and apprehend these bad guys. We are diligently working the leads we have to identify and charge the suspects in these burglaries, but we also need the assistance of residents by reporting suspicious people and circumstances. You citizens are the eyes and ears of the city, and we rely heavily on that to assist us in our daily patrols and crime prevention.

Please feel free to pass this along to those you think might need the information. I along with my staff would be more than happy to come out and address your next HOA membership meeting on this subject. Please contact me with any questions you might have.  

 Thank you,
Dane Mattoon
Captain West Area Command
Henderson, NV Police Department(702)267-4589 desk