Bicycle Thieves Strike in Belmont Shore
The thief or thieves made off with three bikes in three weeks.
Photos
Bicycle thieves who have been targeting a Belmont Shore building struck again today struck in the same place, making off with a third beach cruiser.
The first incident occurred Aug. 6, the second Aug. 8 and again today, according to a resident of the building in the 3600 block of Belmont Avenue, near Ximeno Street.
"He had to walk through our gated back yard to get to it," said Tiffany Kirkham of the second burglary.
According to Kirkham, the first two bikes taken were new beach cruisers.
Kirkham spotted one of the thieves on Aug. 8.
The thief was Latino, between 25 and 35 years old and about 210 pounds.
He stands about 5 feet 10 and was bald. At the time of the first burglary, he wore a red T-shirt and baggy khaki pants.
Both of his arms were heavily tatooed.
According to Kirkham, the man "was speaking softly on his cell phone and walking around the small block in a weird pattern, which is what caught my eye.
"Both times they cut the bike locks off. The second bike had a U-lock between the back tire and the frame. He carried the bike away because of that, he couldn't walk it," Kirkham said.
"He walked back towards the alley, where I imagine a car picked him up (hence why he was on the cell phone). This all happened around 8 am on Monday."
Kirkham said none of her neighbors reported their bikes stolen because they had not registered the cruisers.
Kirkham suggested people do so with their bikes so that if stolen, police can keep an eye out for them.
Trisha Jones
7:08 pm on Saturday, August 20, 2011
This is a HUGE problem down here in the Shore!! I have had my bike stolen, my son-inlaw had his stolen too! Everyone you talk to seems to have had this issue here! I need to register my new one, as I too did not on the old one (which was brand new) so I could not report it!
Richard
8:21 am on Sunday, August 21, 2011
What a shocker. The suspect is a heavily tatooed, Hispanic man with a shaved head. Never would have guessed that.
Ally
9:08 am on Sunday, August 21, 2011
Haha. For sure Richard. I had two friends about three weeks ago that had two really nice cruisers stolen from in front of the restaurant they were eating at in the Shore. Locks were cut off of their bikes too. Can't even enjoy taking your damn bike out anywhere.
Robert Stropky
9:21 am on Sunday, August 21, 2011
My son's month-old bike was stolen last month in our alley. We gave the police the serial number, but no luck having it returned. One of the problems here is the culture of alley-mongers, who live in the shadows behind our homes. We need to crack down on people who don't belong there, including the thousands of scavengers who are stealing from the city.
Shawn Pearson
12:35 pm on Monday, August 22, 2011
I inadvertently left my car unlocked the other night. It was ransacked and everything valuable removed. Same thing happened to my neighbor, on the same evening. Keep your automobiles locked, even when parked close by or in your driveway.
Roy
2:27 pm on Monday, August 22, 2011
Something needs to be done about the trash-pickers and scavengers in the alleys behind our homes here in the Shore. When I leave for work at 5 in the morning, I see them in the alleys and between the buildings hiding. Several bikes have been stolen from garages and backyards. Even aluminum patio furniture has disappeared! What was once a gift to the less fortunate is now a competive business with pickers taking anything of value they can get their hands on. Why can't we pass a law like Newport Beach and stop this thievery? C/of Long Beach are you listening?
Mike Ruehle
3:44 pm on Monday, August 22, 2011
Long Beach already has an anti-trash picker ordinance. However, the Long Beach police choose not to enforce it.
This subject came up at nearly every monthly Belmont Shore Resident's Association meeting a couple years back when I was president. When the police attended the meeting, they were accosted by residents wanting to know what the police were doing about trash-pickers. EVERY TIME, the residents were told by the police, "you call us and we will come and arrest the trash-pickers."
So I tested the police's promise. My home office was on the 2nd floor above the alley in the back of my home. I had a perfect view of trash pickers going through the alleys and also burglarizing my neighbors homes (another story). Over a 4-month period, I documented 186 phone calls to the police to report trash-pickers in the alley. I witnessed 11 police responses. 2 trash-picker cars were towed. 3 trash-pickers were cited. None were arrested. Each time I requested to be contacted by the responding officer. That happened twice.
In my opinion, if you didn't have trash-pickers, you would eliminate the majority of bike thefts and burglaries in Belmont Shore. But good luck getting the cops to help.
Shore Resident
9:32 pm on Monday, August 22, 2011
So, 186 calls over 4 months equates to an average 46.5 call per month. Let's see, you want the LBPD to ensure there is no violent crime, stop the drunks, make sure the liquor laws are enforced, keep you informed of their reasons for the actions they take, and respond to 46.5 calls per month (and to contact you each time). Sounds like unreasonable expectations (actually one could get a restraining order for less). But, then again, you were PRESIDENT OF THE BELMONT SHORE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION and they should have dropped everything because of your status. Mr. Ruehle, you should run for council in the 3rd district, but then you don't live here anymore.
Shore Resident
9:34 pm on Monday, August 22, 2011
Once again, Mr. Ruehle, you amuse me.
John B. Greet
6:54 am on Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Mr. Ruehle said" "3 trash-pickers were cited. None were arrested"
The part of his statment concerning arrests is false.
If "three trash pickers were cited", then three trash pickers were arrested. When a person is issued a misdemeanor citation, they have, indeed, been *arrested* for that public offense. The offficer has simply released the recipient upon his or her written promise to appear before a judge on the date indicated on the citation.
One of the best ways to improve police response to the many calls-for-service that people like Mr. Ruehle choose to enter, is to add more police officers to the force.
Mr. Ruehle dpoes not seem interested in seeing that happen, however. He is apparently more interested in denigrating and impugning LBPD at every opportunity, then entering call, after call, after call for service to our already over-burdened dispatchers and police officers, then condemning them when they fail to provide the unreasonable level of service he expects.
This hardly seems reasonable to me.
John B. Greet
7:10 am on Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Additionally, Mr. Ruehle said: "I witnessed 11 police responses."
How can Mr. Ruehle be certain that there were not other responses that he did *not* witness? Just because one does not see a police officer, does not mean one has not responded to one's call for service. I handled many such calls during my career and more often than not the trash pickers were either long gone or they had already moved to a nearby alley and I contacted them at that location, well out of view of the original calling party.
I agree with Mr. Ruehle that we need to increase our enforcement of anti-scavenging ordinances. But to be able to do that we need a lot more enforcement personnel. Unfortunately we have been cutting, rather than adding, positions at LBPD for several years now, with plans to cut still more, and to defer yet *another* police academy, in the coming fiscal year.
http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_18730479?IADID=Search-www.presstelegram.com-www.presstelegram.com
I will also agree with him that whenever a citizen requests that a police officer contact him or her, that person should be contacted. There are, however, sometimes reasonable explanations for why that does not always happen.
Mr. Ruehle does not seem interested in reason or constructive solutions, however. He seems interested only in denigrating and impugning LBPD.
Mike Ruehle
7:32 am on Tuesday, August 23, 2011
I twice had my bicycles stolen. One time when my house was burglarized. The other time while I was unloading luggage from my car after a trip. Both were fairly expensive bikes. In both cases, I reported the theft to the Long Beach police and provided the serial numbers and a detailed description.
In both cases when I called the police back a month later to see if they had by chance recovered my bicycle, they claimed to have no record of my bicycles ever having been stolen. When I contacted the detective investigating my burglary, he told me he hadn't gotten around to entering my stolen bike into the system, or any of the the other stolen items for that matter.
After another month, I called the Long Beach police department back again and they still claimed to have no record of my stolen mountain bike. Repeated calls to the Police Detective investigating my burglary were never returned.
Considering the number of reported incidents of cops stealing from the Long Beach Police evidence room, I figure some Long Beach Cop is enjoying the use of my mountain bike thanks to the person who burglarized my house.
John B. Greet
8:46 am on Tuesday, August 23, 2011
If Mr. Ruehle's accounts of his stolen bike experiences are accurate, I think he certainly should have received better service from LBPD. On the other hand, Mr. Ruehle can claim whatever he likes. As we have seen, however, what he is able to prove is often quite another matter.
Some time ago, Mr. Ruehle also claimed that other police reports he had made had never been filed. At the time I was in a position to assist him and I did so willingly and voluntarily. I was able to prove to him that the reports he falsely accused LBPD of having *not* filed had, in fact, *been* filed, and in a timely manner besides.
Mr. Ruehle has no doubt forgotten this. But I have not.
Mr. Ruehle conveniently forgets or subsequently ignores many of the false, fraudulent, and otherwise misleading comments he makes related to LBPD.
But I and many others do not.
I would be interested to see some (or even one) of the "number of reported incidents of cops stealing from the Long Beach Police evidence room" to which Mr. Ruehle refers here and I would be interested to know whether he can offer in the thinnest shred of proof to support his assessment that "some Long Beach Cop is enjoying the use of (his) mountain bike."