Walnut Residents Take Concerns About Recent Burglaries to City Council

The Walnut City Council has requested that staff compile data on burglaries in the past six months and the number of prisoners released in the area from the Los Angeles County jail system in the wake of a recent rash of burglaries.

A couple of Walnut residents upset about property crimes in their neighborhoods shared their concerns with council members Wednesday night.

Ray Ayers, a 15-year-resident of Walnut, said his Walnut Canyon Road home was burglarized last Tuesday, one of 10 residential burglaries reported last week in the city, according to crimemapping.com.

Ayers said his neighborhood's mailboxes also were broken into a couple of months ago and the crime has got "the whole neighborhood concerned."

A cluster of mailboxes in the neighborhood off of Amber Valley Drive were also broken into in September.

"They completely trashed the house," he said. "Every single drawer, everything was demolished. They took every single piece of jewelry I bought my wife. Made her cry."

Ayers said his daughter posted information about the burglary on social media and he was able to recover his safe on Amar Road, his wife's passport, and some other items discarded in Baldwin Park by the 10 Freeway.

"This is not local Walnut residents," he said, "and I believe they have burglarized houses before and they will do it again."

Ayers is working with Walnut Sheriff's Deputy Doug Daley to start a Neighborhood Watch program in his area.

He said he wants to make sure the the city is aware.

Councilman Eric Ching said both City Manager Rob Wishner and Sheriff's Department Capt. Jeff Scroggin are aware of the increase in burglaries and are deploying some tactics that can't be shared. Extra patrols have also been deployed, he said, adding that he recently went on a ride along with a deputy.

"I have stressed this point many many times at council meetings, if you see something strange in your neighborhood, be a good neighor and call your Sheriff's Department," Ching said.

Burglaries have seen a sharp uptick in Walnut this year. So far, 184 burglaries have been reported, compared to 107 by this same time last year, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department statistics. That represents a year-to-date increase of 72 percent.  Walnut had a total of 143 burglaries in 2012, according to the data.

Mayor Antonio "Tony" Cartagena said one of the factors that he feels is contributing to the increase in burglaries is that there is a court mandate to send offenders who normally would serve their time in state prisons to county jails instead.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 109, a realignment plan designed to ease overcrowding in state prisons. Under the realignment plan, newly-convicted, low-level offenders who don't have prior or current convictions for violent offenses serve their sentences in county jails rather than in state prisons, according to the California Department of Corrections. 

The law was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Critics have said that because county jails are overcrowded as well, some of those convicted are released early to a stretched-thin core of county probation officers instead of state parole officers.

Cartagena requested that city staff compile data on burglaries in Walnut in recent months and provide that to the council members.

Councilman Bob Pacheco asked that staff also look at releases in the area from county jails to detect if there might be a pattern.

Councilwoman Mary Su said that Walnut residents need to help one another as much as possible to keep an eye out and suggested reaching out to get more community members to help the current volunteers with patrols.

"We do need more volunteers to help us with the patrols," she said. "We have to be very alert about what's going on."

Residential burglaries reported last week include:

• Nov. 3: three homes burglarized in the 400 block of Barbados Drive at 8 a.m., 9 a.m., and 1 p.m.

• Nov. 4: burglary reported at 11:30 a.m. in the 1800 block of N. Winona Drive.

• Nov. 4: home burglarized in the 21300 block of Stockton Pass Road at 12:40 p.m.

• Nov. 4: burglary reported at 1 p.m. in the 1100 block of Sunset Bluff Road.

• Nov. 5: burglary reported at 10:40 a.m. in the 19600 block of Highland Terrace Drive.

• Nov. 5: burglary reported at 9:15 a.m. in the 20200 block of Walnut Canyon Road.

• Nov. 5: burglary reported at 11:30 a.m. in the 200 block of Pierre Road.

• Nov. 6: burglary reported at 9 a.m. in the 20100 block of Ferndoc St.