Frustrated Westridge residents have come together to form a neighborhood watch group to combat and protect their neighbors from the influx of burglaries they’ve experienced since last year.
On Saturday, at approximately 6:30 p.m., Westridge residents alerted one another that they observed at least two individuals entering the gated community through the surrounding open space wearing backpacks and masks, according to Mark, a Westridge resident who declined to provide his last name for safety purposes.
Mark said there has been a burglary in the neighborhood almost weekly since last November. He said many of his neighbors have had their home broken into and sentimental belongings stolen. When the neighbors were notified, there were suspicious people walking around the area. Around 20 residents came together to patrol the area.
Around 7:30 p.m., Mark said, “I was coming into the gate and a white SUV tried to tailgate me into the community. What we think is that this was a pickup person for the people who were on foot. This person (the driver) was caught on video basically trying to run me over and took off into the community at 50 to 60 mph.”
Mark added that several neighbors attempted to block off the driver, but the driver abandoned the vehicle and ran off toward the Oaks Club at Valencia golf course.
After the driver abandoned the vehicle, Mark stayed nearby and was able to flag down a Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputy who had come into the community and explained what was going on.
“That seemed to be enough to cause the sheriff’s deputy to send reinforcement,” said Mark. “Within some amount of time, there were probably 10 sheriff’s deputies and eventually a helicopter was sent up.”
Watch Sgt. Jason Elizondo of the SCV Sheriff’s Station said that a containment was set up to try to locate the suspects, but deputies were unable to find anyone.
Mark said the responding deputies searched for a couple hours before they left the area after not being able to locate the suspects. Then a couple hours later, near 11 p.m., a resident saw the suspect on camera again, alerted the neighborhood watch, and then deputies were called back out, but they were still unable to locate the suspects.
A Westridge resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the neighborhood watch group started last year because neighbors were frustrated with being the victims of constant burglaries.
He said that, now, when someone goes out of town, they’ll watch over the house because it seems to be a common factor that the suspected burglars only hit houses that are empty.
Another Westridge resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, said it’s apparent to him that the suspects are well-versed in burglarizing homes because they wait until the houses are empty, they always cover their faces and wear gloves so that they don’t leave fingerprints behind.
“We’re trying very hard to prevent them from even stepping in our yard from even being in the area and gaining access to even attempt that,” said a resident.
The individual added that the main purpose is to look out for each other as neighbors and family. He said there was a strong sense of community among their neighbors, and they wanted to act fast.
He said he felt that the response of station deputies to the suspected burglary situation on Saturday night was not fast enough. Mark said some residents felt hopeless and that not enough was being done to protect them.
Asked if Mark felt safer with the neighborhood watch monitoring the area, he said yes.
“ I feel like there’s a strong sense of community. I very much appreciate the effort that all of my neighbors have made,” said Mark. “We all care about this. We want to live and be in a place that’s safe for us and our families. Knowing that we can count on each other helps, but it’s not enough. At the end of the day, we aren’t law enforcement. We can observe, we can report, we can try to take videos and so on, but we really need law enforcement to be active and responding.”
