The Threat of “South American Theft Groups”

••• “Public Gets First Look at 443-Unit Apartment Project to Replace Sears Building, Parking Lot [.…] Developers held an open house on Saturday and presented their plans to the public for the first time.” —Noozhawk

••• The county sheriff’s office gave an alarming presentation to the Montecito Association about crime, reports the Montecito Journal:

The burglaries are complex cases of organized crime by these gangs that come into the U.S. and station in Los Angeles, then go to New York and other cities. They are called the South American Theft Groups, aka SATG, who target U.S. residents’ homes. They have both men and women on the team, usually three to four total. While the men are observing the houses they are planning to burglarize, the women are at CVS taking people’s credit card numbers, copying your car key fob to rob the car and contents, including cell phones. The homes they prefer to rob are those of affluent celebrities and athletes. They conduct surveillance prior to the robbery to figure out your pattern of being home and being away, they place cameras on the properties they are targeting, and generally they want no one at home. They are highly skilled and are in and out in three minutes targeting primary bedroom’s safe boxes and jewelry. They use signal jammers to stop your alarms, cell phones and home video surveillance.

I don’t understand why we don’t hear about these robberies as they happen; the sheriff’s office issues press releases about relatively minor crimes, but none about sophisticated robberies. And how exactly do the thieves “take” credit card numbers at CVS? Anyway, the officers suggest that you “purchase license plate readers and install surveillance cameras on your property. If you own the camera and pay for the yearly subscription, it’s around $2,000, and you can then give the data to the Sheriff’s Office.” Moreover, they’re looking to install cameras on “all the main in and out roads to Montecito.”

••• A 32-house gated development under construction in Goleta “will offer rent by the bed. […] The Cove’s website states that 10 to 12 students are able to fit in each home, and the homes are advertised as five-bedroom houses, some with accessory dwelling units. The cheapest option currently costs $1,249 a month (reduced from its previous $1,479 a month) and does not include the cost of electricity or water. The Cove is not zoned as student housing, but rather a planned residential community.” —Independent

••• “Santa Barbara County Supervisors to Consider Giving Themselves $56,000 Annual Raise,” to about $171,000 annually. “The proposal, with a hearing date of February 25, stems from an analysis comparing compensation around the state.” —Noozhawk

••• The Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse sold its 133 E. Haley Street building. “They’re going to move the project recovery treatment program to the non-profit’s administrative building” at 232 E. Canon Perdido Street. —KEYT

••• “Federal lawmakers have made moves to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In Santa Barbara County, losing that funding could mean cuts to two of the area’s public radio stations, KCLU and KCBX.” —Independent

••• “Meghan Markle was forced to rebrand her lifestyle venture” from “American Riviera Orchard to As Ever following a series of trademark setbacks.” Also, “it limited me to things that were just manufactured and grown in this area,” she said on social media. —Page Six

••• Goleta History looks at the history of the Cold Spring Canyon bridge: “At the time of completion [in 1964], it would be one of the ten longest steel bridges in the nation, and the 700-foot-long main span was twice as long as any other constructed in California.”

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