Thousand Oaks City Watch - October 31, 2008

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.

City Watchers and Crime Fighters,

Our friends in Newbury Park have been victimized with residential burglaries. These burglaries are happening during the day and we need your help to take precautions and to be attentive to any suspicious activity, people, and vehicles. We ask that everyone be an excellent witness by observing and reporting criminal and suspicious activity. Please do not assume that a person or vehicle entering someone’s yard or property is there for legitimate purposes especially if you know the residents are not at home.

Most residential burglaries happen during the day when the occupants are away at work or running errands. Criminals may target your residence for many reasons and they may also be driving through the area looking for people who are leaving their houses. Be familiar with vehicles and people in your neighborhood and, whenever you leave your neighborhood, look for occupied, unfamiliar vehicles. Most people think that a crime will not happen to them so vehicles doors remain unlocked and residential windows and sliders remain fully or partially opened when no one is home. Please close and lock all entry points to your house every time you leave your residence.

In the past few months we noticed a dramatic increase in the number of crime reports regarding the fraudulent use of access cards. We discovered a pattern that showed the credit cards were used in the same cities (Dublin, CA; Henderson, NV; Elk Grove, IL) out of our jurisdiction. Most of the victims reported that they still had possession of their credit cards. As such, we suspected their credit card information was skimmed.

We noticed that most of the victims reported using their credit cards or debit cards at local gas stations. We also received information from a local gas station owner that he discovered the credit card reader on one of his pumps that had been tampered with.

Detectives met with the gas station owner and a gas pump service technician. They showed detectives where the credit card skimmers were placed inside the machine. The technician told detectives that a locking mechanism is installed on Galbarco type gas pumps that open the credit card reader inside the gas pump. Galbarco type gas pumps comprise about 50% of the gas pumps used at local service stations. The locking mechanism, however, can be compromised resulting in the electronic components used for processing credit card transactions being exposed.

A solution to this problem would be to replace the locking mechanism with a station specific key for less then $20 a pump. We recommend all our gas stations implement station specific locks to safeguard the credit card information customers, hence reducing a source for credit card skimmers and crime. Share the information with others so we can help hinder these types of crimes.

Residents are rightfully concerned when vandals spray paint walls, benches, buildings, and anything else that can flaunt their less than artistic graffiti. The city of Thousand Oaks has a graffiti hotline and I urge anyone who spots graffiti to call the hotline so we can remove the unwanted and unattractive blemishes on our landscapes. The graffiti hotline number is 805-449-2488.

Have a great weekend and remain vigilant,

Jim DeSoto