Police see a possible connection

By George P. Hassett

House break-ins in Somerville are on the decline because thieves are turning to cars as an easier way to score valuable electronic devices such as GPS devices and iPods, according to Police.

There were 465 larcenies from motor vehicles between Jan. 1 and Aug. 5. During the same eight months in 2006, 242 vehicle break-ins were reported. Both years are hefty jumps compared to 143 during the same time period in 2005, according to official Somerville Police Department crime statistics. From 2005 to now, that is a 225 percent increase and is possibly connected to a 34 percent decrease in residential burglaries over the same time span, according to Somerville Police Capt. Paul Upton.

Upton said he speculates home break-ins are on the decline because crooks now prefer to smash in car windows and quickly grab expensive electronic equipment. He said criminals may believe the penalty is less severe and see cars as an easier target than homes.

People leaving pricey but small electronic devices in their cars such as iPods, satellite radios and GPS devices are driving the skyrocketing increase in motor vehicle break-ins, he said. In an informal survey of break-in victims, Upton said half had GPS devices stolen, and 25 to 35 percent had iPods and satellite radios taken.

Upton said police have made  arrests of significant break‚Äìin men but can‚Äôt seem to slow down the increasing wave of larcenies.

“It’s outrageous,” he said. “We have made seven or eight serious arrests for car breaks and they’re not putting a dent into it.”

Upton said communities surrounding Somerville are also experiencing a similar rise in the crime. Overall, larcenies in the city are up 88 percent since 2005. Upton said the car break-ins are fueling that rise while other property crimes such as residential burglaries have significantly declined. 

However, one Ward 7 resident said he has witnessed a recent resurgence of home break-ins in his neighborhood. Board of Aldermen President Robert C. Trane said his neighborhood has been hit “pretty bad,” and the patterns and methods of the crimes have been similar, leading him to believe it is the work of a single criminal or small team of criminals.

On Aug. 5, a construction site on North Street was broken into, and on Aug. 8, a home at 86 Hooker Ave. was hit by thieves. At 86 Hooker Ave., a crook reportedly climbed in an open window and stole the wedding presents of a recently married couple while the homeowner trimmed the hedges in the backyard.

Trane called the crime “brazen” and said the thief’s audacity alarmed him.

“What if there was a confrontation?” he said.

He said he saw an obvious trend of home break-ins in his neighborhood. The trend appears to be spreading to homes in neighboring East Arlington. At the Aug. 9 aldermen meeting, Trane and Alderman-at-Large Dennis Sullivan submitted an order asking Acting Police Chief Robert R. Bradley to “direct more resources to Ward 7 to address a recent rise in house breaks.” Trane said he hopes for plain-clothes officers to patrol the neighborhood during the day.

However, Upton said there has been no rise in home break-ins in Ward 7 in the last year.  He said some reports of break-ins have turned out to be home alarms going off at the wrong time during the night or incidents in which the reporting party was simply mistaken. There has been the same amount of home breaks between June 1 and Aug. 13 this year as last year, he said.  He said public perception in Ward 7 has been skewed by people circulating information about break-ins that are not actually happening.

“There has been no alarming increase in home break-ins in Ward 7,” he said.