Thousand Oaks City Watch Alert, July 23, 2009

Here is the latest "City Watch" alert from Deputy Jim DeSoto of the Thousand Oaks Police Department. If you are interested in receiving these updates directly from him via email, click here for more information.

Greetings Crime Fighters!

Your assistance in combating crime with the police department is greatly appreciated by all who wear the uniform and who represent you and the city. Another incident of thievery has ended thanks to the watchful ears and eyes of a resident.

At about 5 am, an alert resident in Newbury Park heard his vehicle door close, checked his car and saw a male subject enter a tan truck that hurriedly drove-off. The person called ‘911,’ gave a description and the patrol units later stopped the vehicle. Many articles of stolen property from different victims were found in the truck. Needless to say, the good guys happily took the crooks to jail. This happened because of the watchful eyes of a resident. With your participation, the police department can more effectively fight crime.

Recently, thefts have been happening from shopping carts. In all these situations, the victim placed her purse or bag in the child seat portion of the cart. The purse, bag or other container is left open or partially open so the contents are visible. The victim is then distracted, or in one case, bumped into in order to complete the theft. This is an easy theft to complete and in all these cases, the victims never felt that anyone around them was a threat to their property. Please pay attention and be aware of your surroundings.

Please view the attached video as it demonstrates how easily the thieves commit their crimes through distractions. Click here: Man steals people's banking information. [VIDEO]

Party calls are typical on weekends but we are finding many underage persons having parties where alcoholic drinks are served. The parents are out of town and leave the teenagers without supervision. Please call dispatch, 805-654-9511, whenever you suspect this is the case. Our main concern is to prevent any injuries, crimes or tragedies that sometimes result because of the mixture of unsupervised adolescents, alcohol and drugs.

Scams have always been around and the typical lottery scam, where a winner (the crook) has the winning ticket but cannot redeem the ticket because she/he has no documentation, is back. Please be suspicious of wolves in sheep clothing.

A new scam has surfaced via e-mails. People are receiving e-mails claiming that the recipient or the recipient’s family has been targeted for assassination/death. The e-mails are generic and never mention the recipient’s name. Of course, all one has to do is send money and the recipient and the recipient’s family will be ‘pardoned.’ This is a new level of scams. By introducing a fear component these out-of-the-country crooks have instilled a new intensity in their shams. Remain resolute and continue to report those swindlers.

A smart person once said, “Crime Prevention is everybody’s business.” The city and the police department is fortunate to have people like you who care about the issues that affect all of us. Let’s keep putting those bad guys in our local gray bar motel.

Take care,

Jim (DeSoto)