In less than 6 months since September 2024, Manhattan Beach has seen 11 home burglaries – eight of them in East Manhattan Beach. 

With concerns over crime growing, East Manhattan neighbors have been meeting with each other, with neighborhood watch teams and police, leading up to a well-attended local community event Wednesday night.

The Manhattan Beach Police Department brought two representatives to answer neighbors' questions for over an hour, followed by a presentation by local neighborhood watch volunteers with tips about how to avoid being a victim of crime.

Surprising Patterns to 'Organized' Burglaries

Ask any East Manhattan resident. They can tell you what's been going on.

MBPD's speakers, Lt. Kelly Benjamin and Sgt. Andy Abreu, confirmed that there has been a consistent modus operandi to many recent burglaries:

• Burglaries occur commonly between 4:00-9:00pm
• Typically they happen on Saturday, Sunday, Monday or Wednesday 
• Small "teams" arrive in a high-end vehicle, such as a Mercedes, which may wait outside or circle the block
• Criminals make their way quickly to the backyard, and improvise a way to enter at the second floor
• If a door is locked, they break glass and enter
• They are quick and strategic, spending no more than a couple of minutes inside, often rummaging the primary bedroom for valuables
• Some "teams" use sophisticated methods to disarm home security systems, including wifi "jammers" 
• The burglars are not interested in confrontation with residents, and can be turned away by noisy alarms or dogs

Rumors have run rampant about who is behind the spate of burglaries. 

Lt. Benjamin answered speculation about the perpetrators being Venezuelan gangs, saying, "The trends we have seen have the hallmarks of organized theft groups. We don't know their nationality until they're arrested."

 

"What we know from what we've been able to see on video," Lt. Benjamin continued, "is that we see different ethnicities. So we can't tie it to one particular group... It is very likely that we have the same group hitting us multiple times in the community, [but] it is also very likely that we have different groups hitting the city."

"It is a local issue, it's also a regional issue, it's an entire Southern California issue, frankly it's a national issue as well," Lt. Benjamin said. "We are seeing that a lot of these groups aren't just staying in Southern California, they're going state to state to state."

Neighbors Rally, Demand Answers

East Manhattan resident Tori Shaughnessy helped organize the evening's event, an outgrowth of neighbors simply talking to one another on dog walks and at school dropoffs. As she introduced the guests from MBPD, Shaughnessy said Wednesday's gathering counted as the neighbors' fourth meeting on the topic, although easily the largest. 

What was to be a "driveway meeting" with police speaking to neighbors quickly drew so much interest, it was clear the neighbors needed a bigger space. The Pennekamp PTA stepped in, offering the Pennekamp Elementary cafeteria – which played host to an overflow crowd of more than 250 residents. At least three City Council members were present, including Mayor Amy Howorth. A larger community town hall on crime issues is expected soon. 

One questioner asked if there is a reason that burglars seem only to be hitting East Manhattan Beach. 

Sgt. Abreu noted that East Manhattan's proximity to several major thoroughfares may tempt criminals. "They're coming right in, they're going right out," Sgt. Abreu said. "Most of these crimes are quick. They're over in a matter of minutes."

Several neighbors asked whether MBPD took the burglaries seriously enough to increase patrols and visibility, to try to quell the trend.

"I can tell you this is a priority for our police department," Lt. Benjamin said.

"Every time a burglar burglarizes someone, or we get a robbery ... and there's a loss of property, it feels like a loss for us, too," Lt. Benjamin continued. "Our job – a lot of who we are as police officers – is fighting criminals and stopping crime. So it does feel like a failure for us as well."

Lt. Benjamin said MBPD has stepped up patrols, but many involve detectives and other officers in undercover roles, not parading through the area in squad cars. "If you see them, they are doing it wrong," Lt. Benjamin said. "The whole idea is you do not see the undercover officer."

The patrols are timed and mapped out to try to match up with what's known about the methods of the criminals involved with the current wave of burglaries, to raise hopes of catching some in the act, Lt. Benjamin explained.

There is also a lot of information-sharing with nearby South Bay police agencies, who are all "comparing notes" to try to raise the odds of detecting crimes in progress to catch some of the perpetrators.

Tips for Preventing Burglaries

It's helpful to understand the tactics used in many of the recent burglaries. So what does MBPD recommend that residents do to lessen the odds of their becoming victims?

The main tips presented by MBPD at Wednesday's event:

• Lock all your doors (the police frequently see thefts and burglaries involving unlocked doors);
• If you have security cameras, check to make sure they work;
• "Hard-wired" cameras are better than wifi-connected cameras;
• Put "glass-break" sensors on 2nd-floor points of entry, especially doors to a primary bedroom (a common entry point these days);
• Loud, audible alarms and lighting that respond to an intrusion are better than silent alarms;
• Whether you're home or not, timers that turn lights around the house on and off are helpful to create the impression that someone's home, deterring burglars; and
• Get a dog ("criminals hate dogs").

Best Numbers to Call, and When

Residents asked how it might be best to reach MBPD to report something suspicious, which might or might not be an emergency.

Lt. Benjamin made sure everyone in the audience copied down (310) 545-4566, the direct phone number for the Manhattan Beach dispatch team. She said you will reach the same person who handles 911 calls from Manhattan Beach at this number, but encouraged residents not to be shy. 

"If you see something, when in doubt, call us. We're trained professionals, we'll figure it out," Lt. Benjamin said.

Dialing 911 from an area near a freeway, Lt. Benjamin said, might first result in the call being routed to CHP. That's why dialing direct to (310) 545-4566 might be quicker.

Texting to 911 is a fairly new option that Lt. Benjamin recommended. This may be a good way to share details discreetly about a situation, and you should expect to hear back from a 911 operator quickly. (However, texting to the (310) area code number for the dispatcher is not available.) 

When reporting something to Dispatch, Lt. Benjamin did advise that callers be ready to "be as descriptive as possible" about the issue at hand. She advised:

"Be a trained observer. Be smart about this. What makes the behavior suspicious?"

"Are they looking into cars? That's weird."

"Did you see them pop out of a side yard?"
 
"Did they avert their eyes really quickly?"

"Did you see two people walking together, and they split off? That's weird, too."

"Did you see them hop over a fence? That's a clue. They should not be doing that in a civilized society."

"Could there be completely normal explanations for any of these acts? Yes, there could be.
Leave it up to us, as police officers, to figure that out."

Police Have Nabbed Burglars Recently

Lt. Benjamin noted that Manhattan Beach almost shuts down after 10pm, changing the dynamic for police officers on patrol. Sometimes, their encounters escalate.

"We have caught a bunch of these people, and we have caught burglars," she said.

"Our officers are out there stopping people in the middle of the night," Lt. Benjamin said, "they're stopping people in the neighborhoods, and the cars are taking off from them."

MBPD can't always keep up the chase if the situation becomes unsafe, but there have been successes. Just last week, MBPD stopped a car with burglary tools inside, leading to an arrest. Sgt. Abreu pointed to stops in the past week that have netted three guns.

 

Lt. Benjamin recounted a pursuit from a few months ago that ended in the capture of "burglars who had just burglarized a house in Manhattan Beach."

"There was no alarm," Lt. Benjamin said. "The officers had no idea who they were stopping.
The car just happened to run a stop sign in front of our officers... and we ended up catching those burglars, and it was the second time they had burglarized the same house."

"We are out there, and we are working hard," Lt. Benjamin said.