BY CATHY SCOTT
Business burglaries are often crimes of opportunity. Workers leave equipment out
that can be seen by passersby, thieves smash windows and grab it before anyone
can see them.
And Las Vegas is no stranger to the ever-increasing smash-and-grab thefts.
That's what's happened to a handful of nonprofit organizations headquartered on
the east side of town in a high-crime area.
But the victims of the rash of break-ins are fighting back against the thieves
-- and they appear to be winning. They've installed sophisticated security
systems, glass coatings to prevent broken windows and even replaced laptops with
clunkier and more difficult to remove desktop computers.
After the most recent burglary, on Jan. 10, at the American Red Cross local and
national offices on East Flamingo Road, an alarm company donated a security
system. Since then, the break-ins have stopped.
Penney Towers, CEO of the Southern Nevada Chapter of the Red Cross, recently
spoke with a Metro Police detective, who said they have no suspects in the case.
"The burglars were wearing fabric gloves," said Red Cross spokeswoman Jennifer
Lawson. "They didn't leave fingerprints. Police told our CEO they haven't caught
anyone."
From the local office of the Red Cross, thieves got away with six donated laptop
computers, a digital camera and a Blackberry (a wireless phone and e-mail
device). The equipment was worth $20,000 and has not been recovered. Thieves
also broke into the adjoining national office and grabbed expensive electronic
equipment from there as well.
But with the new $3,300 donated security system from Alarmco now in place, there
hasn't been a burglary since.
"We've locked them out," Lawson said.
Red Cross officials aren't the only nonprofit winning the battle against
would-be burglars.
Paul Brown, who until recently headed the Progressive Leadership Alliance of
Nevada where there were two break-ins, said nonprofit offices are easy targets.
"They're smash-and-grab crimes," he said. "The main reason they get broken into
is because of low budgets. We can't afford to stay in more secure buildings. The
groups are easy targets."
A PLAN worker at the time of one break-in at the Winchester Plaza at 1700 E.
Desert Inn Road, Brown said, left a computer out in full view of a window.
Next door to PLAN, another nonprofit group, the Friends of Nevada Wilderness,
was also hit at its office in the Winchester Plaza. And the Golden Rainbow group
in the same complex was hit three times as well.
What the nonprofits all have in common is the 89119 zip code. The area,
generally bounded by Eastern Avenue, Paradise Road, Desert Inn and Flamingo, is
considered a high-crime section. It's in Metro Police's South Central Area
Command.
"The 89119 zip code has one of the highest crime rates in Las Vegas," said
Kathleen Boutin, who heads the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth at 4800 S.
Maryland Parkway near Desert Inn. The neighborhood is in an older, somewhat
seedier section of town not far from UNLV. It includes mixed uses of residential
houses, apartments and commercial buildings.
In 2004, according to Metro's statistics, 2,552 major crimes -- which include
assault, auto theft, burglary, larceny, murder, rape and robbery -- occurred in
the area, with 21,472 police calls for service the same year. Crime stats for
2005 were not available.
Because of the last burglary a year ago at Golden Rainbow, the HIV/AIDS charity
has moved out of the 89119 zip code. Even an alarm system at that location
didn't stop the thieves, said Executive Director Eric Fleming. "By the time
anyone heard the alarm, the burglary was over," he said.
So the group relocated to the 3200 block of West Charleston Boulevard. "We
wanted to get a fresh start," Fleming said.
At the new headquarters on West Charleston, they not only have a new alarm
system but they've installed break-proof glass. "They can't get in," Fleming
said.
"The first time they took our desktop computers, petty cash and some checks," he
continued. "So we put in an alarm system."
But thieves broke in anyway by smashing a brick through the window a second time
and walking away with a document scanner.
"The third time," he said, "they broke the window again, but didn't take
anything."
After three break-ins at the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth in mid-2005,
that group also installed a security system: a $15,000 high-tech surveillance
alarm.
"We had to bite the bullet," said Boutin. "We invested in a really expensive
security system."
The group also had Rolladen security shutters installed.
"Every time we've been hit, they took our laptops," Boutin said. "We're now
using big bulky donated computers."
The group's attempts to thwart burglars has worked.
"We've had half a dozen attempts since we got the system," she said, "including
someone trying to get through the roof."
Because the front and back doors are now under camera surveillance, burglars
have climbed on the roof and tried to get in the office that route. But the
burglary attempts haven't been successful.
"As soon as they try, the alarm goes off," Boutin said. "It's not a silent
alarm. It screams. We haven't had a break-in since."
Cathy Scott is a local author and freelance writer