As San Francisco celebrated a 17 percent drop in auto break-ins in the first few months of 2018, it still had to deal with the other 83 percent of the auto crimes that have bedeviled the city.
To keep reducing the break-ins, police have called for help from residents in reporting and tracking suspected auto criminals, a tactic highlighted in the recent capture of two suspects in the Marina. According to authorities, two individuals who were on an auto break-in spree were captured after police were called by residents. After following the suspects’ vehicle, police ended the pursuit by using “spike strips” in the road. The suspects got out of their vehicle—one tried to hide under a truck, and the other ran into a nearby backyard.
They might as well have stayed in the car. Two children noticed the suspect in the backyard and told their father, who told officers. They arrived and investigated, ending up on the home’s roof, from which they spotted the suspect on a nearby roof using his cell phone to call the other suspect, who at that time was being pulled out from under the truck. When the suspect saw the police on the other roof, he smashed his phone in a possible attempt to destroy the evidence of his connection to the other suspect.
Both were taken into custody.
