hits Las Flores area
In a separate event, two teens are arrested after a local teenager notices their suspicious activity.
By Hans Laetz / Special to The Malibu Times
Sheriff’s deputies are keeping a close eye on the upper Las Flores Canyon Road area following a string of burglaries. But an alert teenager who reported suspicious activity is credited with solving two vehicle break-ins in the same general area.
Neighbors along a short section of Hume Road are keeping a close eye on things after a string of four burglaries took place in the past few weeks. In all the cases, the thieves broke into locked houses and took items that have immediate cash value, such as digital cameras, computers or bowls of change, residents said.
“What is most concerting is that someone is apparently watching the houses and knows when we are home or not,” said one homeowner.
The Malibu Times is withholding the names of the victims at the request of residents.
One house has been hit twice, and the other incidents were close and similar enough to lead Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective J. Bausmith to conclude that they may be connected.
One resident said the burglars “were obviously not the smartest crooks in the world,” after they used a hammer on a deadbolt lock to no avail, then gave up and went through a window.
That home reportedly suffered about $12,000 in window and door damage, in addition to the loss of about $15,000 worth of electronics, the resident said.
Although these houses are in a relatively remote area between Saddle Peak and Las Flores Canyon, residents said they actively look after each other and are not extremely concerned about the rash of burglaries.
“I still don’t feel afraid because the crime rate is so low in Malibu, and it was such a petty thing,” one resident said. “We’ve lived here for 20 years and never seen anything like this.”
In an unrelated incident in the same area, a 17-year-old from Malibu and his 18 year-old accomplice from Pacific Palisades were arrested a week ago after they apparently stole goods from parked cars.
Bausmith said a 17-year-old resident spotted the two men driving along Las Flores Canyon Road near Manzanita Road very slowly after midnight. After watching the pair look at parked cars, the teen alerted his father, who assisted in getting a license plate number.
Deputies stopped that car near Pacific Coast Highway, found stolen goods, and arrested the two youths. Two cars were found up the canyon with smashed windows.