Home burglaries are down, Oly police say, but recent incidents could show a trend
Olympia Police have noticed an uptick recently in home burglaries that involve entry through garage doors — not the mechanical doors for cars, but the side doors where people enter.
It’s not that the overall number of burglaries has gone up. In fact, Lt. Paul Lower said, the opposite is the case: He said there were 172 residential burglaries in Olympia in 2019, which is a 20 percent decrease over 2018.
But, Lower said, the burglaries the department has seen lately show “what seems like a little trend” of people accessing homes through those doors. Stolen belongings tend to be high-value items that can fit into a backpack, Lower said, such as expensive tools or computer equipment.
In the past month, there have been 14 residential burglaries across Olympia, Lower said. Five of them involved entry through doors in the residents’ garages, and that point of entry is “highly likely” in two others.
Police are “looking into” the pattern.
Five of the 14 recent burglaries were on Olympia’s west side, four were in the southeast, and five were in the northeast, Lower said. In other words, no one area seems to be a hot spot.
It’s too early to say whether one person or group of people has been committing the recent crimes, Lower said. Oftentimes, burglars case houses; it could be different people trying windows and doors to figure out what’s open and discovering that the door to the garage is unlocked.
The department recommends people double-check all access points when they come and go from their homes — even secondary doors that don’t lead directly into the house. Lower also recommends calling police if you see suspicious activity, talking to your neighbors, and paying attention to what’s going on in your neighborhood.
“Your best security system — in our opinion — for a residential burglary are your fellow neighbors,” Lower said.
The police department’s crime prevention efforts can be helpful in avoiding these scenarios: Vacationers can contact Rebekah Ziesemer at 360-753-8578 or rzieseme@ci.olympia.wa.us before leaving town and provide information regarding their upcoming trip. A volunteer will then walk the perimeter of their house while they’re gone and alert police if they spot anything unusual.
Volunteers are available, too, to survey properties and give thoughts and ideas on preventing crime, Lower said. Ziesemer is also the contact for that program.
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