A female resident in the 200 block of Amalfi Drive heard noise coming from the first floor of her home just before noon on February 29. When she went downstairs, she encountered a tall black male, wearing a gray sweatshirt and dark-colored pants, according to Palisades Patrol CEO Scott Wagenseller. The intruder told the Amalfi resident that he was looking for a neighbor. She told him that the person he sought didn’t live there, saw him to the door and then called the police about the incident. An hour later, a security alarm sounded in the 1100 block of Amalfi (in the Riviera neighborhood), and within three minutes Palisades Patrol officers Eric Fine and Alonzo Hernandez responded and confronted a suspect emerging from the side-yard gate. ’He was not expecting us,’ Wagenseller said, noting that the man’s demeanor was calm. ‘It was like he was out shopping.’ Fine and Hernandez detained the man, and LAPD officers responded to the location with lights and sirens. Police later learned that several residents in the 1100 Amalfi area had called LAPD about a suspicious person in the area who was walking through backyards and trespassing on neighboring properties. The woman in the 200 block of Amalfi identified the suspect, age 29, as the man who had been in her house. The suspect did not have a criminal record, and claimed he was just in the area to deliver an iPad to an acquaintance. When asked why he had gone to several homes, he said he was asking people help him find the correct location. Wagenseller thought it may have been a ‘knock, knock’ burglar. LAPD burglary Detective Greg Davis said that there has indeed been an increase of ‘knock, knock’ burglaries in this area, and also in the San Fernando Valley, Ventura County and in the Malibu-Lost Hills regions. ’Suspects rent nice cars and are well-dressed, so they appear to blend in,’ Davis said. ‘They drive up to a neighborhood and one of the men will go knock on the front door. If no one responds, then he, or one of the other men, will go around to the back and break in. Once they’re done, they call a person still in a car, who swings by and picks them up.’ Pacific Palisades was mentioned in a Ventura County Star article (‘L.A. Sheriff’s Deputy Arrested in Thousand Oaks Burglary Case,’ February 28) because Don Mosely was named as one of the members of a sophisticated gang of burglars who had hit upscale homes and then used the proceeds obtained from jewelry, cash and other items to support lavish lifestyles. Mosley was nabbed after he and two others allegedly burglarized two homes in the Marquez Knolls neighborhood on February 12. The suspects led LAPD on a high-speed pursuit down PCH and onto the Santa Monica Freeway. The chase ended in Santa Monica, and although two of the suspects escaped, Mosely was arrested, booked and held on $1 million bail. According to the Star report, ‘Investigators believe the suspects would knock on the front door, go around the back when no one answered and enter through open doors or force their way inside.’ The story reported that burglars hit homes from Thousand Oaks and Oak Parks to Pasadena and Tustin and the Palisades, and investigators feel that the amount of goods stolen could reach $1 million. ’We’re currently investigating the people associated with Mosely,’ Detective Davis said. ‘Some of the people he may have been associating with may still be operating in this area.’ Davis asks residents who have alarms to set them when they leave and to make sure that windows and doors are locked. If residents see something suspicious they should call (310) 444-0701. If they see a crime in progress, dial 911. ’I’m in contact regularly with Palisades Patrol to share information about crime trends and patterns,’ Davis said.
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