Time for a Community Effort to Combat Crozet’s Thefts

December 13, 2010

It’s time. Dammit. The break-ins have been going on for too long.

mom of three said it best:

and just so you know…I still consider Crozet to be one of the safest, friendliest places in America. I hope we can build community through this problem.

Parkside Village, Waylands Grant, Cory Farm, Old Trail, Western Ridge, St. George Avenue, Jarman’s Gap … there seemingly are no neighborhoods in Crozet that are immune to these break-ins (really, just taking advantage of unlocked cars)


This is unacceptable.


If you are interested in collaborating/coordinating/helping put together neighborhood watches, please fill out this form or send it to your respective homeowners’ associations and neighbors.

Thanks to Evan S for the sound words of analysis and advice:

While I would hope police are keeping this in the back’s of their minds, I wouldn’t expect them to be wasting patrol resources actively perusing the perp(s). Instead they should be (only possible if people contact police) compiling a list of items stolen (with all identifying properties including product numbers) and comparing these looking for markets where these items are bought and sold (pawn shops, craigslist.org, etc.) and building a database of fingerprints taken from vehicle windows, doors, etc. However, I would expect the perp(s) to be wearing gloves (this time of the year it won’t look suspicious).

While it is possible that these are youth committing these crimes, unless they are stockpiling the stolen items in their parent’s homes, I’d doubt it. If they are selling these in the schools someone will eventually overhear or see what is going on. If they are stockpiling, I would expect their parents to be finding out very soon. I doubt youth could move what seems to be a number of items without someone noticing unless they have some adult assistance.

The person is probably on foot, or at least scouting/marking the area on foot looking for items to take. If he/she/they find something larger they might come back later with a vehicle; however, that would be risky given they’ve already hit the area and people would potentially be more vigilant.

Subdivisions are being hit because they are (in the Crozet area) middle to upper middle class, easily accessible, have lots of people coming and going, and the residents don’t have big dogs. Subdivisions are perfect for small time break-ins. For all the opposite reason individual residences aren’t being hit. They are not easily accessible (gates, off the road), don’t have a lot of people coming and going (not easy to blend in), and have big dogs. Individual residences are probably more likely to be cleaned out in a big break-in though. At the same time, neighborhoods should have plenty of neighbors looking out for one another!

Given the numerous occurrences of the crimes, I would expect someone local or at least familiar with the area committing the crimes and moving the items outside of the area (at a minimum to Charlottesville or the Valley) to sell. It could be a small time operation or it could be connected to a ring.

And to conclude, lock your doors. Neighborhoods are great places for this type of crime. These are crimes of opportunity, by locking your door you’re making the perp(s) do more work than they care to/can accomplish given the situation.


Share: