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North Boulder sees biggest rash of car break-ins in decade
STEPHANIE DAVIS
Kirby McIlyar in front of her Volkswagen Passat on Copper Street in Boulder, Colorado July 23, 2008. McIlyar's two cars were two of four on the block that were broken into Monday, July 21.
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Share and Enjoy Residents in north Boulder learned a harsh lesson about leaving iPods, cell phones and laptops in their cars, after police were called to investigate 15 vehicles that had been broken into overnight Monday.
The thefts occurred in and around the Dakota Ridge, Buena Vista, Boulder Meadows, and Catalpa Park neighborhoods — all north of Iris Avenue — approximately between the hours of 11 p.m. Monday and 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Mel Rhamey, a crime analyst with Boulder police, said it was the biggest series of one-night vehicle break-ins the department has seen since the 1990s.
“To have 15 in one area like that is unusual, at least in the last few years,” she said. “It’s been fairly quiet in the last few weeks in terms of criminal trespasses.”
Police believe the break-ins are connected. They have no suspects yet, though one victim reported seeing a small SUV parked in the area of Rosewood Avenue that he thought was suspicious.
“We don’t have much to go on,” Rhamey said.
Police reports show that at least three iPod players, one laptop, and one cell phone were stolen from vehicles, about half of which were left unlocked by their owners.
The thieves used pry bars or smashed windows to gain access to locked vehicles.
Kirby McIlyar, who rents a house on Copper Street just east of Broadway and north of Iris Avenue, left one Volkswagen Passat parked on the street and another in her driveway, both of them unlocked.
“The glove boxes in both cars were open, and the contents were spread out across the front seat,” she said. “They took our iPod converter.”
Her neighbor — one of four car owners on Copper Street hit by thieves that night — lost something more valuable. Nancy Pettingill discovered her son’s iPod missing from the backseat of her Subaru Legacy.
She had left her car unlocked and there was no damage to the vehicle.
Chris Echelmeier, who was visiting his girlfriend in the 1300 block of Rosewood Avenue, wasn’t so lucky.
He awoke at 6:40 a.m. Tuesday to find his Mazda missing its front passenger-side window and his Dell laptop computer gone.
“The first thing I saw was a window next to my car,” he said. “They had pretty surgically removed it and left it on the ground.”
He said the smashed window was still held together by the tinting film in the glass.
The break-in is costing Echelmeier nearly $600, and with his insurance deductible at $500, the cost of replacing his window will come entirely out of his pocket.
Echelmeier said his car was one of seven broken into up and down his block of Rosewood Avenue.
The criminals appeared to have worked fast, he said, because they never looked in his glove box, where he had stashed his iPod.
“This particular group or person weren’t interested in car CD players or stereos, which is more typical,” said Rhamey, the crime analyst. “They were after what was left inside the car.”
Posted by andrusj on July 23, 2008 at 4:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Lame. Welcome to the club north boulder. lock your doors.
Posted by rungreger on July 23, 2008 at 4:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
If their doors were unlocked, the creeps wouldn't have needed to bust their windows out. Better advice would be to take your ipod, laptop, etc inside.
Posted by andrusj on July 23, 2008 at 4:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Very true, anyone with any street knowledge wouldn't leave a laptop or ipod in plain view in the front seat. If you're going to leave your valuables in your car, lock them in your trunk.
Posted by nuggethillrd on July 23, 2008 at 4:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Where are all those security camera's when you need them. At all those traffic lights! Gee that helps with crime!
Posted by cgjj1 on July 23, 2008 at 5:18 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Denver gangs in Boulder are increasingly getting bolder. Meth, violence and all that is typical in Boulder.
Posted by harrisonferrel on July 23, 2008 at 6:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The police in this article said, "To have 15 in one area like that is unusual, at least in the last few years,” she said. “It’s been fairly quiet in the last few weeks in terms of criminal trespasses.”
Really? Think again. The Camera doesn't report the crimes so they don't exist. How about the guy on Bimini Court who had TWO BMWs stolen out of his garage last Monday night? That's $90,000 in one fricken burglary!!
Boulder police did not even do an investigation.
Posted by ep10 on July 23, 2008 at 8:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
What kind of moron leaves valuables in their car? Is it *really* that difficult to lug that stuff inside...
Posted by seemore on July 24, 2008 at 6:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I used to live in Nth Boulder there is a lot of 13th street gangsters in the trailer park behind the liquor store they can hike through the fields at night and rob all the neighborhoods around and just duck back in the field and come home with all the loot.
Welcome to Nth Boulder.
Posted by KR on July 24, 2008 at 6:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Best strategy is to take all valuables out of the car but leave the car unlocked. At least then they won't bust a window just to look inside.
Certainly hope they get caught.
Posted by The_Belfrey on July 24, 2008 at 7:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Learned my lesson years ago about leaving stuff in my car.
I'm thinking about leaving a hungry, untrained pit bull in my car (maybe dyed pink for a little Boulder panache), with a security camera trained on the area. I'll put the video on YouTube if I get something entertaining.
Posted by boulderjen on July 24, 2008 at 8:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Karma?
Why would anyone with common sense leave thousands of dollars worth of electronics in plain view in their car? Wow. Stupid is as stupid does.
Posted by elliott on July 24, 2008 at 8:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Garage your car if you can, don't leave anything inside it if you can't.
Posted by jadam12 on July 24, 2008 at 9:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Also helps to have an old cheapo unwashed ratty car (yet is very reliable) that no one would consider looking at in the first place. Also cuts down on the cost of insurance and registration fees.
I call it the "Please take my P.O.S. car" theft deterence system.
You really only use a car to get from point A to point B and maybe carry some stuff. Could never understand the reason why some one would pay so much for cars in the fisrt place. Not like you can drive that highly priced luxury sports car even close to its full potential, especially in town.
Posted by backrange on July 24, 2008 at 10:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
15 vehicle owners who are realizing how good/bad their insurance company is today. Life lessons.
They're finding out that most insurance companies won't cover contents of the vehicle. Contents are covered by your homeowner/renter insurance, if you have that. If you don't, too bad.
Years ago my insurance agent told me he never locked his car. He said if they wanted to get in, he didn't want them to cause damage to do so.
And, he said never leave anything valuable in the car, including the garage door opener, vehicle registration, etc.
In fact, I knew a guy who went to a Broncos game, came out and discovered his car was broken into. He was surprised to find they hadn't taken anything out of the car. But, when he got home to Golden discovered they had broken into his home and stolen his big screen TV and several other large valuable items. They had gotten his address from the vehicle registration slip and broke into his home knowing he wouldn't be back until around 6pm.
Don't leave anything of value in your car, ever.
Posted by DianeMad on July 24, 2008 at 10:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
So why don't we have a "two strikes you are out" for low life scumbags like those who are stealing? Why was the poor little mother bear killed while idiots like these are still roaming free. Perhaps Boulder needs to take a serious look at how we deal with animals vs criminals. Why don't we tag these creeps when we find them and take them up in the mountains with the threat that if they come back into Boulder---well, you get the picture. Shoot the bastards on sight.
Posted by The_Insinuator on July 24, 2008 at 10:38 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Boulder's rabid teenagers strike again?
Posted by super_boulder on July 24, 2008 at 11:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Two strikes and you're out? Three strikes and you're out?
For a country that hates baseball so much, they sure seem to use the most inane ways to define crimes. 3 strikes and you are out? What if it was a 10 strike and you are out law. If baseball changes their rules does that mean that people who can't think past "x strikes" will finally be dealt out of the debate? While you are at it, since baseball is played in an arena, lets bring back lions and other animals in arena's so we can watch these people fight for their lives.
At a minimum, these executions should be public spectacles so that people could see how uncivilized we are as a society. In fact, lets stone them. That way everyone can participate. This entire thought of "killing another humanely" is nuts. Who cares if you crush their skull with a tractor, stone them or inject poison into their veins?
If you want to support the death penalty for crimes committed inside of the United States, you should also step up to the plate and watch what you do to these lives and participate in the crime of murder.
If you are a god lover, then per your bible you should be straight on your way to hell. Judgment, especially final judgment should be held for "the almighty".
An eye for an eye? You would think I was back in Afghanistan.
Posted by ImInBoulder on July 24, 2008 at noon (Suggest removal)
Great "model pose" Kirby McIlyar!
Price Is Right, here you come!
Posted by theprairieprankster on July 24, 2008 at 12:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)
If it can be seen, it can be stolen. Even in the nicest places. Houses, cars, whatever. If a bad guy can see it through a window, then he may try to steal it, if it is out of sight then he may be inclined to move on to a more enticing target.
Posted by intrepid on July 24, 2008 at 1:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
What is the purpose of a "crime analyst", especially to the Boulder PD?
Posted by Doc_Brinkley on July 24, 2008 at 1:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It's the work of those pesky fox kits in north Boulder, which are tired of stealing tennis shoes.
Call DOW to kill 'em all.
Posted by MikeEllis on July 24, 2008 at 1:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
LOL, Doc. Unfortunately, the kits in our neighborhood have all grown up and moved out, although I still see mom. It would have to be the fawns these days.
Someone did go in through the sun roof in my neighbor's car, rifled through all the goodies, and only took the cash. I forgot to ask him if he had left any gloves in his car.
Posted by Doc_Brinkley on July 24, 2008 at 3:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
All of these unlocked vehicles will make convenient campsites for the 20% of homeless people who are knuckleheads -- now that word is out.
Posted by rasinden57 on July 24, 2008 at 7:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Doc--my thoughts exactly. The vagrants are fanning out and diversifying. Panhandling is slow these days, and hasseling the movie goers is boring. Now you can get some real dough for a lap top!! That will sell in the right market, because the liklihood of identity theft is pretty good from a stolen lap top. Then you can get s few hits of meth and live high for a few days. Great!
Posted by harrisonferrel on July 25, 2008 at 8:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yes, I agree with the person above. We should definitely get lions and have them eat the criminals. After all, this would show how far we've come since the olde Roman days! Or we can do what they do in Saudi Arabia and have a public bloodletting. We could also crucify the criminals and, if there's a messiah who happens to be in the same crucifield, then we could reenact the Jesus story.
OR, what might be a better idea would be some sort of plan by the police department.
Posted by tpon on July 26, 2008 at 12:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
One answer to the problem is private security. The Boulder cops can't be everywhere, and their job isn't prevention anyway. Local HOA's and community groups could hire private security to patrol the streets at night and be in direct contact with the cops. But their mere presence would be a very effective deterrent to the scumbags. Let me know if anyone is interested; I know people in the security business who would love to moonlight in just such a capacity.
Posted by meatpieandtatters on July 27, 2008 at 10:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Watch out for your neighbors!
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