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You’re sitting quietly at your girlfriend’s house, minding your own business, when you hear a slight knock at the front door. Your girlfriend gets up, looks out the peephole and sees a small female on the other side of the door. She thinks, “we’re in Germany, it’s safe to open the door; it’s not like we are in some inner city crime zone in the United States.”
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case – and was the scenario several KMC members found themselves in recently. When the woman began to open the door, it was kicked aside and four males burst into the room, demanding everyone get on the floor. The men threw one of the military members through a glass coffee table and forced the others to the floor at knifepoint, while kicking and punching them. The crime that played out was a robbery, and fortunately did not result in a more serious crime or injury, but it could have been worse.
While incidents like these may be a rarity, it is a perfect example of the false sense of security felt by members in the KMC. It seems we have forgotten we reside in a community of close to 250,000 people with a mixture of nationalities and cultures.
Officials from the 569th U.S. Forces Police Squadron have noticed a disturbing trend of property crimes involving unsecured houses and vehicles. Since October 2007, there have been 49 residential burglaries, 330 vehicles broken into within the KMC, as well as 15 vehicles stolen. Seven of the burglaries occurred while residents were sleeping in their homes.
How can someone break into your house, steal your stuff and not wake you up? Easily, they come through an unlocked door. Criminals have entered residences through open patio doors, unlocked garages and even climbed onto second floor balconies when they saw the door was ajar. Fortunately, the scenario where the men broke into the home resulted in arrests, and they are currently confined in the German prison system pending their day in court. However, crimes like these can typically be avoided by simply locking doors and windows.
But it’s not just the homes left unlocked; it’s vehicles as well. When one thief who was arrested for breaking into cars was questioned about why he chose American-owned vehicles he said, “Americans keep expensive stuff in their autos and it’s easy money.”
Criminals admit Americans’ cars are easy targets and usually contain items which are easily sold on the black market – quick cash for a short night’s work. Do they just target American cars? Not necessarily, but when a GPS is attached to the windshield and an MP3 player is hanging out of an expensive stereo, the choice is easy.
Another thief who was caught stealing in the Vogelweh Housing Area actually said it was better for him to walk from downtown Kaiserslautern, jump the peri-
meter fence and steal from unlocked American cars, than to waste his time trying to steal from locked cars off base. That’s a risky choice considering the amount of police coverage in military housing is far greater than housing areas off base, and the majority of on-base vehicle break-ins are eventually solved.
The property targeted during vehicle break-ins continues to be items in plain view: GPS systems, stereo systems (including face plates) and military equipment. These items are easily moved throughout the European black market and are regularly seen for sale at flea markets in the larger cities and former western block countries. Removing your property is the safest bet. Also, remember that recording serial numbers and marking items helps the recovery process.
Recently the Polizei conducted Operation “Pica Pica,” checking for unlocked vehicles in the city of Landstuhl. They discovered 40 unlocked cars out of 700 checked. Fortunately, it was the Polizei that found the unlocked vehicles, and they secured the property and let people come to the station and get it back without a citation or fine. The 569th USFPS initiated a similar program in the Vogelweh Housing Area to thwart a recent rise in vehicle break-ins. They randomly checked vehicles parked in the housing area to see if they were locked and found 73 vehicles unlocked during one night, many with high-value items inside.
During the month of October there has been a spike in vehicle break-ins and burglaries in the Vogelweh Housing Area and security forces stepped up patrols and surveillance operations to match the threat. On two nights during the month, 12 vehicles and two homes were robbed.
A vast majority of the cars and houses were unsecure, making them easy targets. Decoy cars and video surveillance operations are taking place, but have yet to catch the criminals. Recently a decoy car was placed in the housing area in an attempt to lure in the thief. But as night fell, a check of the immediate area revealed that there were also seven unlocked cars with GPS systems attached to the windshields. On the same night, five of 15 first floor balcony doors were found open in a three building area.
An estimated $300,000 has been stolen from American vehicles and homes so far this year and much of this money goes back into funding other criminal activity we don’t need in our community. Don’t leave high value items in your vehicle. Lock the doors and windows, and report suspicious people immediately to security forces or the Polizei. Let’s make the KMC a safer place for our family and friends. Don’t let your guard down because being a victim isn’t a memory you want to take away from your assignment in Europe.
Security forces personnel are only a phone call away – 480-2050 for Ramstein or 489-6060 for Vogelweh.
