Encino Residents Meet With Police in Wake of Robberies

Galvanized by a recent series of follow-home robberies, including one that ended in a fatal shooting in Granada Hills, hundreds of Encino residents turned out Wednesday night to discuss crime prevention with Los Angeles police officers.

The large turnout gratified police, who say Encino dwellers are normally complacent about crime in their well-to-do neighborhood.

“Traditionally there has been a lot of apathy in that area in terms of Neighborhood Watch,” said Officer Russell Long, referring to the department’s crime-prevention program in which residents are trained to report suspicious activity on their streets.

“I think they are concerned suddenly with a number of crimes,” said Long, whose beat includes the affluent hillside neighborhoods south of Ventura Boulevard. He said a catalyst for the turnout was that one of the organizers of Wednesday night’s meeting was robbed at gunpoint.

Fears appeared to have been heightened by two recent follow-home robberies in the area less than a month after the Feb. 27 killing of a 39-year-old Granada Hills art dealer who was shot to death as he returned home from a late business meeting.

Before the meeting, Detective Al Aird said the robbers in the most recent crimes don’t appear to be those operating in Granada Hills, Northridge and Porter Ranch.

More than 250 residents filled the auditorium of Lanai Elementary School. In place of the usual cookies and punch, French pastries and fresh brewed coffee were provided. The cars that filled the parking lot--Mercedes-Benzes, Jaguars, BMWs and other luxury vehicles--exemplified their owners’ appeal as targets for follow-home robbers, who choose victims driving expensive autos and follow them home.

Long urged the audience to become active in Neighborhood Watch. “Your best protection is not the police department, private security or alarms--it’s each other,” he said.

Citing a slaying that remains unsolved because no witnesses have stepped forward, Long continued: “You hear stories about New York City. I’m telling you the same thing happens in Encino. That’s why it’s so important you work together.”

Long seemed to impress the audience members by telling them that in their neighborhood in the last three months, police had documented 47 crimes, including 24 residential burglaries, six armed robberies, nine auto thefts and nine auto burglaries.

Many residents said they have been taking extra precautions.

Jackie Kinsler said she organized the meeting after she and her husband were held up at gunpoint in their garage Jan. 19.

She began phoning neighbors to warn them, she said, and was shocked to hear how many others had been victimized by crime. “It turned out that things were happening, but no one was communicating with each other on it,” said Kinsler, who described herself as “paranoid and always on the lookout for crime.”

“To have this happen, after always being so alert, it was incredible to me.”

Kenny and Kandy Kang said that ever since Kandy Kang was held up by follow-home robbers four years ago the couple constantly check to make sure they aren’t being followed as they drive home. If they suspect they are, they pass their house and keep going until they are sure they are no longer being followed, they said.

Kandy Kang added that when she returns home alone, she won’t get out of her car if she sees any strange autos parked on her street.

Four youths, whose alleged crimes included the Feb. 1 burglary of former state Sen. Alan Robbins’ Encino home, have been arrested and their spree apparently ended, Aird said.

The youths have been linked to 14 cases from Calabasas to Burbank, Aird said. In nearly all of those crimes, the victims were followed home from markets or other businesses and held up at gunpoint, or their homes were burglarized later, Aird said.

But just when detectives in the West Valley Division thought their follow-home robberies had been “fairly cleaned up,” Aird said, two more follow-home robberies occurred on March 11 and 17, with victims followed home from different Ralph’s supermarkets, one at Ventura Boulevard and Winnetka Avenue and the other at Topanga Canyon and Roscoe boulevards.

Aird said police believe the same man committed both those crimes because the more recent victim identified her robber from a composite drawing compiled by the earlier victim.