Police Puzzled by Attacks on Lockboxes

Why would a burglar wield a screwdriver and sledgehammer--or maybe even a power drill--to pry apart sturdy metal real estate lockboxes and retrieve the house key inside the box, when the very same tools could be used to attack the door itself?

“This is absolutely stupid,” Arcadia Police Detective Bernie Bernstein said Tuesday of the newest crime spree in the San Gabriel Valley. “It’s baffling why they’re going to this difficulty to get in the lockbox, when you can go to the back door and accomplish the same thing.”

The boxes are tiny metal safes designed to contain house keys. They are usually attached to the front doors of houses for sale. Real estate agents who want to show the house to potential buyers open the boxes with a special key and combination.

But since Aug. 22, someone has used muscle to open the boxes. Arcadia is investigating three burglaries. Sierra Madre and Temple City have each logged one, officials said.

Bernstein is puzzled, not only by the method, but by the small and selective take of the intruders. The houses have not been emptied. Instead, a watch, jewelry, coins, a gun and, in one instance, a phone answering machine have been carried away.

Real estate agents are worried. On Sept. 6, the Arcadia Board of Realtors issued a warning about the unusual crimes.

“I’ve been in the business 20 years and this is the first incident we’ve ever had . . .,” board president Gretchen Robbins said.

“It’s a safe, secure compartment,” she said of the lockboxes. “I have one on my own home.”