Important Alert from Police Chief Hunt – Read Immediately
The City of Piedmont has been experiencing a rash of daytime residential burglaries in different parts of the city.
The method the suspects are using is the same old one we have been warning residents about for years. A subject goes up to the front door, knocks and waits to for an answer. If someone answers they state they are looking for a friend and off they go. If no one answers they see if they can break in. Our latest suspects (seen at two of the locations in the past few days) are described as younger adult black males. A car was seen in one of the incidents.
What is frustrating is that we may have been able to make an arrest if citizens had called in earlier than they did to report suspicious activity occurring. One citizen waited until the next day to report that she had watched as our suspects walk up and down driveways to the front doors to several of her neighbors. The suspects came to her driveway (where she went out and made contact with them) and they asked for ‘John’. Off they went and around the corner we took a residential burglary that occurred that same day. Her reason for not calling sooner “she did not want to be accused of racial profiling”. A second citizen waited 45 minutes because she had company.
Let me repeat. Going up to residential doors during the daytime, knocking, waiting for an answer (if answered then asking for “a friend” you have never heard of) is what burglars do . . . no matter their race. If the subject(s) happen to be black, it is not racial profiling to call about them – if they are doing what was just described. If this happens to you… call the police as soon as practical.
WHAT HELPS THE POLICE THE BEST IS A LICENSE PLATE NUMBER IF YOU SEE ONE.
NEXT IS: THE SUSPECT’S DIRECTION OF FLIGHT and AS MUCH CLOTHING/CAR DESCRIPTION AS POSSIBLE.
Working together we can put these burglars in custody.
John M. Hunt, III
Chief of Police
City of Piedmont
403 Highland Avenue
Piedmont, CA. 94611
jhunt@piedmontpd.org
(510) 420-3010
