Now that the local media has picked up the story about the recent series of armed robberies here in Natomas, THE BUZZ wanted to give our readers a recap of what’s been going on to date, and what they should expect to hear at tonight’s community meeting on the topic.
So we chatted at length this morning with police Capt. Daniel Hahn who initiated the meeting with Creekside HOA president Angelique Ashby after noticing an unusual spike in violent crimes throughout Natomas neighborhoods.
“A significant number of these home invasions and robberies were in broad daylight,” says Hahn. “There were no commonalities on the victims. They were male, female, black, white, young and old.”
Between June 1 and June 24, Sac PD recorded more than two dozen separate robberies including :
- 15 home invasion robberies. Of those nine were at apartments and six at houses.
- Five of these were through open garage doors and the victims were women ages 29 to 68. Four of these occurred between 1:40 p.m. and 5 p.m. and one was at 9:18 a.m.
- In 6 cases, the suspect knocked on the door, the victim opened the door and the suspect rushed in brandishing a firearm. Most of these occurred at night.
- Two of the 15 home invasion robbery victims were actually hit during the crime.
- Items taken included money, purses, cellular phones and laptops.
- Suspects had guns in all 15 cases.
Also of note during the same time period:
- 14 robberies, 11 of which were with guns and one with a knife. No weapons were seen by the victims in two of the incidents.
- Two of the 14 victims were assaulted.
- More than half these robberies occurred during daylight hours, between 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. One robbery was late at night and the other five in the morning between 3 and 11 a.m.
- Four of the robberies were in the Northgate/West El Camino area.
- Nine of the 14 robberies were successful, the other five were not and have been classified as attempted robberies.
In some of the above-mentioned incidents, the difference between the crimes was simply geography. If a victim was standing in their garage, for example, that crime was considered a home-invasion robbery. If they were on the sidewalk in front of their home, it was not.
After a run of about two incidents a day there have been no home-invasion robberies since a week ago Tuesday and there has been only one street robbery on June 27, where the suspect snatched a cellular phone, but tonight’s community meeting is going forward as planned.
“That’s the way we are going to catch these guys in partnership with the community.”
Capt. Hahn warns area residents should not get too hung up on the suspect descriptions now circulating. The important thing to pay attention to is peoples’ actions.
“The biggest thing people can do to help themselves and help us is to trust your instincts,” says Hahn. “The car acting weird, the guy who’s on the street and seems to be watching houses and looking in windows, at least write down license plate numbers.”
To date, Hahn reports police investigations have led to the arrest of seven people in connection with the series of robberies in Natomas. And although police believe these suspects — all ages 15 to 19 years old — are linked to many of the crimes, they have not arrested everyone responsible.
Hahn believes these arrests have put a damper on the robbery spree and that is why police are seeing fewer incidents in recent days. He hopes raised community awareness will send a message to criminals that Natomas is not easy pickings.
“Crime is not up in Natomas,” says Hahn. “This is a dramatic spike in robberies and it’s very unusual.”
I live in the McKenzie at Natomas apartments at 4601 Blackrock Drive (corner of Del Paso Blvd). A couple months ago my apartment was broken into during early afternoon hours, they entered by kicking down the front door.
A month after my incidence another occurred in which 3 African American young men came in through an unlocked front door, while the tenants were home. They were armed with a gun, and luckily the tenants ran them off without any items stolen, or harm done.
Then last week (week of June 27th) there was another break in during early afternoon in which 3 African American young men kicked in the front door. The tenant was not at home. They were spotted by property maintenance and got away in a car driven by a female. At least one of the young men was identified as being at the park behind the complex a few days later, and the police were called. They took a minimum of 45 minutes to get there, and he had already left by this time.
None of these incidents have been included in the list of home invasions, and am not sure why since the police department was called out to each occurrence.
I am disappointed in the way the apartment complex has handled these situations in regards to informing all tenants of the recent activity. They had discussed with me months ago putting flyers on the doors informing tenants of these home invasions, and said they would get a neighborhood watch program together. I have yet to see either of these happening. I discussed this with them again this past weekend and they said they were still looking into getting the neighborhood watch together. I even informed them of this website, and the meeting being conducted this evening. I hope that someone from property management was able to attend, and that they take action NOW. This is a nice luxury apartment complex and I enjoy living here, but I do not like that they haven’t taken these issues seriously.
I am thankful that the media has finally brought attention to these issues, and that there was a community meeting tonight. It was very informative, and I hope more people will now be cautious of their surroundings, and to help in protecting their neighborhoods of crime. Natomas is a good place to live, and we all need to do our part, along with the police department, in keeping it a safe place to live.