Claremont Insider: Wilderness Park News

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Wilderness Park News

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The Claremont Courier reported yesterday that the past few months has seen a rise in car burglaries at the parking lot for the Claremont Wilderness Park. According to the article, by Tony Krickl:

...in the past several months, an increasing amount of car burglaries has worried some park visitors and has the Claremont Police Department searching for solutions. The recent trend began on June 29, when 4 cars were broken into between the hours of 3:30 p.m. and 5:15 p.m.

Since the incident, 17 more cars have been burglarized while parked at the Wilderness Park parking lot, Claremont Police Sergeant Mike Ciszek said. The latest incident happened on Friday, March 14, between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. when a woman's purse was stolen.

In all cases, a window was busted open and valuables were grabbed from inside. Items of value - purses, wallets, backpacks and cell phones - were often left on car seats in plain view of a potential thief. With incidents taking place from early morning to late afternoon on random days of the week, police say there is no pattern to look out for.

The article (not posted on the Courier's website) did not make clear which Wilderness Park lot was being targeted. There is one at the end of Mills Ave. about 1/4 mile north of Mt. Baldy Rd., but the photo accompanying the article showed the one at Mills Ave. and Mt. Baldy Rd.

The article said that the police have no leads currently, and the police department is considering putting security cameras in the lots. The main lesson is a common sense one: park visitors should not keep valuables in cars or at least not in plain sight.