A Day (Actually 4 hours) in the Life of an Auto Break-in Crew
Startling stall in SF’s auto break-in trend since DA recall
Friday November 11th, Veteran’s Day, Central Police District, San Francisco
11:18 am: Two calls to 9-1-1 describing occupants of Gray Hyundai Elantra that were seen breaking into two separate cars at Bay and Kearny Streets.
11:22 am: Call to 9-1-1 telling of occupants from Hyundai that were seen casing parked vehicles at Bay and Mason Streets.
1:28 pm: Call to 9-1-1 that occupants from Hyundai were seen stealing a suitcase from a car parked behind Beach Chalet Brewery on Great Highway.
At approximately the same time, Central Station undercover officers Christensen and Ciudad spotted the occupants of the Hyundai peering into parked cars at the Ocean Beach parking lot. The officers checked DMV records on the Hyundai license plate, and it came back to a 2007 Honda. The officers followed the Hyundai to Balboa Street and 43rd Avenue where they observed an occupant case more cars and then discard the empty suitcase that was taken from the Beach Chalet parking lot. (Criminal Academy Learning Block #402: Don’t clog your getaway car with bulky low-valued items.) The officers eventually lost the Hyundai’s trail in the Richmond District.
2:15 pm: At Taylor and North Point Streets, Central Station Sergeant Parra watched a juvenile occupant from the Hyundai break into a BMW and steal a duffle bag.
2:35 pm: Central Station officer Gardner observed the Hyundai parked at Hyde and Jefferson Streets. Gardner saw the juvenile break and climb through the rear window of a Toyota Highlander. While the juvenile’s legs dangled from the Toyota’s window, he was able to remove a suitcase, backpack, and tote bag before stashing them in the Hyundai.
2:38 pm: At Leavenworth and Beach Streets, Central Station officers Montague and Kilgariff watched as the juvenile struggled to break into a Ford Expedition. The juvenile was finally successful with the window and was able to remove three backpacks.
SFPD’s Arrest
As the Hyundai eventually traveled southbound on Octavia Street towards the Central Freeway, SFPD possied[1] up and laid spike strips near the entrance to the freeway. (The spike strips have the effect of immediately deflating a vehicle’s tires and hopefully incapacitating it.)
ABC’s Dion Lim posted a Twitter video, provided by a tow truck driver, of the resulting chaotic foot chase on the 101 Freeway, which included the pursued jumping over the freeway medium into northbound traffic. Please watch the video here.
Jonathan Caruso was the driver of the Hyundai, which turned out to have been stolen out of Oakland. After Caruso fled on foot, he chucked a Glock pistol off the freeway, which SFPD recovered on the surface streets below. Caruso continued to run until he was tackled with a second Glock in the front pocket of his sweatshirt. And the progressives claim: car break-ins are a nonviolent property crime.
Angel Herrera, a second occupant of the car was also caught and arrested for his contributions to the auto burglary spree.
Sorry Chronicle, juvenile crime is still not vanishing
Like my article earlier this month on the juveniles’ carjacking and the justice system’s failure to provide tough love and better life skills to these kids, the juvenile in this incident also has a short, expected lifespan. He was the most active person breaking into the cars and was the passenger in a stolen car that was chauffeured by a driver in possession of two Glocks. When SFPD stopped the stolen Hyundai, he ran from the police southbound in the middle of northbound 101 traffic before CHP Officer Barner grabbed him.
Upon his arrest, SFPD contacted Juvenile Probation to inquire whether it might be appropriate for the juvenile to spend a night in Juvenile Hall. Probation Officer Nguyen directed SFPD to call the juvenile’s mother in Antioch to drive to SF and pick her son up and then for SFPD to issue the juvenile a traffic ticket with the felony charges on it. Those are the consequences for the emerging juvenile crime trend- citations- which allows the Chronicle to argue Juvenile Hall is unnecessary.
More context to Dion Lim’s stats
In the intro to Ms Lim’s Twitter video, she correctly stated that’s that auto burglaries in San Francisco were up 12% over last year through September 30th. However, Ms. Lim’s comments warrant more context as 2022 auto break-ins are composed of two tiers: one with Chesa Boudin as district attorney through July 7, 2022, and a second tier with Brooke Jenkins as the DA for the remainder of the year:
· For January 1 through June 30, 2022, under DA Chesa Boudin, monthly SFPD’s Compstat shows auto burglaries were up over 10% compared to the prior year.
· For July 1st through October 31, 2022, under DA Brooke Jenkins, SFPD’s Compstat’s monthly auto burglaries braked to a dramatically slower plateau of half of a percent (0.5%) rate compared to the previous year. (2021: 7,820 versus 2022: 7,862)
Since Boudin left office, SFPD’s Dashboard similarly displays a huge decrease in larcenies- the umbrella category for all thefts:
· From January 1, through July 7, 2022, DA Boudin’s last day, larcenies were up 22% year-over-year.
· For the period July 7th through November 20, 2022, under DA Jenkins, the year-over-year increase declined to much smaller 2.3%.
Statistically, 22% increasing rate versus 2.3% rate documents something has changed in a major way. Either SFPD is completely fabricating the decline in the rate of auto break-ins yet threw 26 officers into this Veteran’s Day operation (doubtful), or SFPD’s proactive strategic enforcement operations is sending a clear message to the thieves (probable).
Or maybe it’s DA Jenkins holding detention hearings to evaluate if a violent person should be held in custody before their court date? Jenkins is creating consequences, while delaying the prolific thieves from immediately returning to their profession (probable).
In November of last year, I wrote an article on the impact to citywide auto break-in statistics by the arrest of a single prolific car burglar, Xavier Pittman. My article also covered what happened when DA Boudin released Xavier back to his profession:
Xavier is a prolific car burglar. During the summer, he made the mistake of dropping his wallet and cellphone in a car he had just broken into. (A violation of the Criminal Academy General Order 5.09: Carelessness.) That set off a serious investigation, which lead to his arrest on August 4th.
The SFPD investigative techniques were revealed to Xavier and his attorney through SFPD incident reports; this sent a chill through the car boosting industry. Sources told me car break-ins collapsed during Xavier’s two-week residency at County Jail. The statistics in SFPD’s Compstat confirm this. In August (2021), auto break-ins declined 23% citywide and 38% in the Central District (North Beach). With Xavier released by Boudin back to the streets in September, break-ins increased 17% citywide and 35% in the Central District! Obviously, custody reduced crime.
Making SF safer does not require a rocket science: a DA that evaluates whether custody is appropriate for violent criminals, combined with proactive law enforcement engagement, reduces crime.
[1] I realize this is not a word. It’s street jargon. It is a past tense derivative of the noun: “posse.”
Aren’t regressive policies grand...how long are cognizant citizens going to put up with an upside down culture, all for the sake of equity and other useless leftist ideologies.If you stop the mail in ballots watch how quickly this garbage ends..liberalism is a mental disorder.
Comeonman ..
Thanks for this Lou. It’s too bad the voting public doesn’t get it! Reminds of a Lt. I had many years ago. He always said “ there’s not such thing as a misdemeanor traffic stop.”