Crime Drops Overall, Burglary Remains a Sticky Wicket

Piedmont police recorded 15 major crimes last month, the lowest monthly figure so far this year, and a figure 42 percent lower than the count for September in the previous two years.

A drop in larcenies, from 10 in August to 4 in September, was the biggest factor in the overall dip. For the sixth straight month, no robberies were recorded. The motor vehicle theft count stayed even with August at 3.

But burglaries were up again, with police recording 7 in September compared to 5 in August, despite an being added to patrols during daytime hours when such crimes are thought to be occurring (burglaries did drop in May when patrols were added after a spike in burglaries in April).

Piedmont has been averaging 7.5 burglaries a month in 2011, compared to about 4 in 2009 and 2010. Largely due to the overall increase in burglaries, the number of major crimes counted in the first nine months of 2011 now matches the total for all of 2010, and is on pace to exceed the 2009 total.

Piedmont Police continue to call burglaries, "crimes of opportunity," with many criminals entering homes through unlocked doors and windows. In , said Captain Scott Wyatt, a burglar let themselves in with a spare key that had been left in a fairly obvious spot underneath a potted plant on the back porch of a home on Bonita Avenue.

A at the high school Sept. 30 netted the first assault report of the year.