[CPProt.net] Albuquerque: Nob Hill shops see burglary pattern

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

 Nob Hill shops see burglary pattern
By Nathan Tafoya
Tribune Reporter
July 20, 2005

It was a clean job, quick and neat. 

Sometime between 5:30 p.m. Monday and 8 a.m. Tuesday, someone swiped 13
paintings, jewelry and a printer from the Nob Hill Gallery on Monte Vista
Boulevard Northeast. The total loss is estimated at nearly $10,000, said
gallery spokesman and artist Ken Killebrew. 

A stereo, computer and petty cash drawer were left untouched. Whoever did
the job put the covers back over the jewelry cases, albeit slightly askew. 

It's the latest case in what some Nob Hill merchants say has been a recent
pattern of burglaries. 

Police and other residents, meanwhile, say they haven't noticed an increase
in crime in the neighborhood. 

Gary Peterson, a board member of the Nob Hill Neighborhood Association, said
crime seems to be rising and comes in surges. 

"It seems they hit an area and hit several times and then they're off,"
Peterson said. His home was burglarized about a month ago. 

"What disturbs us is that a lot of people are robbed in succession,"
Killebrew said. 

Inocente P.C. law firm on Bryn Mawr was burglarized twice in June, said one
of its law clerks. 

Abode, a high-end home furnishing store on Central Avenue, has been
burglarized twice since it opened in October, said owner KC Roehl. 

But Roehl sees the neighborhood as getting safer, which she said is
important as a female business owner. 

Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Trish Hoffman said she's not aware
of any pattern in the area. Amy Henne, president of the Nob Hill Business
Association and owner of Lavande Bleu on Carlisle Boulevard, said she isn't
aware of any rash of crime either. 

"There's no place in the country that's crime-free," Henne said. "Business
owners have a responsibility to make sure they protect their own
businesses." 

Killebrew said the gallery thief, or thieves, got in by knocking out a panel
in the back door. 

The gallery does not have an alarm security system. 

"Who would want to steal art?" Killebrew asked. "That's what we figured,
anyway. But we will get (a security system) now." 

One can only speculate on the street value of the stolen abstract paper
paintings, Killebrew said. 

"How many crack heads know what they're doing to steal art and how to do it
properly?" Peterson asked. 

Dartmouth Street Gallery, next door, has an alarm system and wasn't
burglarized this week. 

"None of my stuff got stolen, and I feel kind of bad about that," Killebrew
said. "Did they think my art was trash or what?"
 
 

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