14th home in Encino burglarized: LAPD
LOS ANGELES - Another Encino home gets sacked by a burglar or burglars overnight.
That makes it 14 homes in this one particular area hit over the last few weeks. One home was even hit twice in a four-day period.
Police are investigating if it's the same burglars or different crews of burglars that just keep on coming back.
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The most recent burglary happened Monday night in the hills south of the Boulevard in Encino around 10:30 p.m.
It happened in a matter of minutes - and by the time armed guards and police arrived, the burglary crew was long gone.
Police said three masked men jumped over a side gate at a home on Ballina Drive, with a getaway driver waiting outside, just out of camera view.
The burglars smashed their way through a glass door that led into the master bedroom.
Security camera footage would later show they spent 5 to 7 minutes inside the house, ransacking every room, going through every single closet, including in the home office.
The couple who live at the home were driving back from a short trip and were alerted by a text message from their alarm company.
While police haven’t been able to find any of the suspects involved, they don’t even know if it’s the same criminal crew. The latest victims believe detectives should be looking at where all the items stolen are being sold.
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The suspects got away with jewelry and purses. But according to the Meyer family, they didn’t find much and that’s because they were burglarized two years ago this month. There wasn’t much left to steal.
FOX 11 was here in Encino at another home burglary Monday, and yesterday the count was up to just over a dozen and now it is up again.
According to police, what makes this particularly challenging is that the suspects move very quickly. They're wearing masks, they're wearing hoodies, they're wearing gloves.
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And when they do have a visible getaway car, it has no license plates or the plates are covered up. A lot of them are using stolen cars, police said.
It's unclear why homes are being targeted in this area.
Homes that have been hit include empty ones, others that are occupied, some with alarms that go off, and others that don't.
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The LAPD's Commercial Crimes Division has now sent a team of detectives to work together with LAPD’s West Valley station as the investigation into the burglaries continues.