Sunday Summary: Burglars With Nice Rides; Local Kid Turns One Down; Car Miners Getting Better – And High-Profile Arrests

In an era where we we don’t find ourselves agreeing on very much we think we can agree it was a busy, newsy week for us all here in the 24/680.

Local bikers celebrated the opening of a bike lane link between our county (Contra Costa) and Marin this weekend, many pausing to admire the views few of us get as we rush along the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge in our Rolling Living Rooms. Being bridge fanciers ourselves, we know there’s something special about being able to walk or bike over one. Enjoy.

And more on those Rolling Living Rooms we mentioned. We have all sorts of gear in them now, and appear comfortable leaving all sorts of expensive stuff in them, and it should be known that we have crews of dedicated thieves out there mining our cars for all sorts of groovy things.

And we’re not talking about isolated instances of thievery, we’re talking about a crew of thieves “sweeping” a likely parking lot – often outside a popular local diner or coffee shop – taking their time to do reconnaissance and identify specific targets – then breaking into multiple cars.

Apparently, folks can afford to lose everything from cash to computers to musical instruments because they keep leaving such things in their cars. And thieves of every conceivable stripe appear more than willing to take them.

We’d suggest getting a safe of some kind but it appears that the crews – perhaps tired of ripping off cars – are targeting those in local homes, probably under the assumption that people are likely to store all sorts of goodies in a hardened box equipped with a combination.

A safe bet, pardon the punnery, until it is understood that local thieves either know how to find homes with safes or are merely carrying them off whenever they come across one – cracking the “box” later in the comfort of their lair (presumably furnished with stuff stolen from other cars and homes.) One thing we are learning is that the crooks are often equipped with some really high-end wheels – also presumably stolen – and far better than anything we could ever afford.

Their victims are often unwilling to talk, reluctant to discuss the nature of their loss or to relive the experience of having one’s home invaded and ransacked by strangers. Totally get it, but we’re interested in how these things work so, so if you’ve been victimized and are feeling up to it, perhaps you can let us know some of the details.

One young man did just that Saturday evening after a man in a white van reportedly attempted to entice him inside while parked near the Safeway store on Camino Tassajara in Danville. Luckily, the youth made the smart play and bolted for home, giving critical information to his parents and police. If there are any future developments, we’ll pass them along.

And, speaking of developments, there were a few this week as a couple of very high-profile murder cases came to a head with arrests made in connection with a case in Pleasant Hill and, of course, the mind-bendingly horrific cases in Orinda.

A number of narratives developed as a result of our coverage of these and other stories this week, some of which were expected, others of which were not. Suffice to say we were surprised our little enterprise could attract such attention – most of it positive but in a few instances open attempts to muzzle us. We found that interesting, if not illuminating. Perhaps we’ll have more on that later but, apparently, some folks – and institutions – are under some pressure.

We’re no strangers to that, ourselves, but we’re also big on regular doses of stress relief, so you’ll pardon us if we run off for breakfast and a much-needed coffee.

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your time with us.