Thefts on the Beaches

Greetings:

Just curious if there has been any reporting of the ongoing thefts taking place at our beaches?  I keep hearing of surfers getting targeted and today it happened to two of my close friends.  When I look online locally to see if this story is being covered anywhere, I do not find anything.  Being in a local surf family I think it would be very advantageous for this story to be shared so that we can all help keep an eye out and catch those committing these crimes.

 They do not care about the contents of the vehicles, other than the phones and wallets.  They watch to see where surfers hide their key, then they nonchalantly break in, stealing wallets and phones.  Today’s thief put the hide a key back in its hiding spot after breaking into the truck.  They are oftentimes able to access people’s bank accounts within minutes because they have the person’s phone.  It is almost like having someone’s fingerprint.  Last year when this happened to a good friend of mine in Long Beach, the criminals (who were never caught) bought thousands of dollars of gift cards at Target within 20 minutes of having stolen his wallet/phone.  It is likely there are lookouts at the beach advising others to break in and how and then possibly another who drives through the lot to grab the stolen items.  My guess is these are sophisticated rings.  Maybe we need video cameras at the beach parking lots to help deter these crimes.  And maybe, if more people were aware, we could be catching more of them in the act.

Thanks for listening.

If you have any advice on who else I should contact regarding possibly running with this story, I would welcome it. 

Thank you,
I am simply a concerned citizen who does not want a few bad seeds to ruin it for the rest of us.

Amy Miller

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