Bird Rock merchants banded together battling a string of serial burglaries and paintball attacks that began a year ago on La Jolla Boulevard, costing the community a great deal monetarily and emotionally.
“We’re on a shoe string budget. This is our livelihood,” said Miriam Zieminski, Frame Masters & Fine Art co-Owner.
The Bird Rock burglars’ used an entry method in their latest crime spree, July 19, when they broke into Stephanie’s Shoe Boutique and Haute Culture Boutiques that merchants allege they perfected over the past year.
The thieves threw rocks through Stephanie’s glass door. They crawled through the opening, stealing high-end goods such as handbags, said Stephanie’s employee Jackie Zebrowski. Neighbors said that although alarms rang through the air, the pilferers came and went before officers arrived. But one bandit left his DNA for police when shards of broken window sliced through him, offering clues to an identity, if police ever nab a suspect, Zebrowski said.
“They threw a rock through the door, kicked out the wood and took a couple of purses. Then they crawled through and must have scraped themselves because there was blood on the door,” Zebrowski said.
Zieminski’s frame shop, located at 5631 La Jolla Boulevard, sits next to Bird Rock Coffee Roasters and Bodywear “” the neighbors recently became paintball victims, but Zieminski said she doesn’t think the two crimes are connected.
“It seems like a whole different type of attack,” Zieminski said. “I feel so bad for the merchants.”
According to Bodywear Employee Amanda Mizell, the burglars began targeting Bodywear about a year ago.
“We were hit twice. [First,] one year ago, then most recently was three months ago, but there was also a third attempt. You can see where they tried to break-in. There was a rock there,” Mizell said.
Bodywear had surveillance tapes running, and caught the burglars every move.
Mizell described the May incident, where two white or Hispanic men in their late 20 or early 30 broke in. One dashed for an empty cash drawer, she said. When he realized the store wasn’t holding any cash, he slammed the register shut, pulled on a heavily wired computer, but couldn’t take that, so he broke the monitor. The men began grabbing yoga clothes, then ran out, Mizell said.
“They tried to take the computer but couldn’t, so they knocked over the computer monitor,” she said.
In all, the burglars stole more than $5,000 worth of merchandise, but the extensive hours of inventory time was the worst part, Mizell said.
The community gathered together to come to a resolution.
“The Bird Rock Community Council (BRCC) had a merchants meeting,” Mizell said.
“We had at least one BRCC sponsored meeting in April and we’re having one Wednesday, Aug. 6,” said BRCC President Joe LaCava. “The [police] have done little changes to increase their presence”
And shop owners like Zieminski said that while merchant meetings with police offered tips to lessen the stores as a target helped a bit, she thinks the community will hire a security guard.
“There’s been a rash [of burglaries] for more than a year,” she said. “I think we’ll probably hire a private security guard.”
LaCava agreed, and said police recommend moving high-end merchandise away from windows to make shops less attractive for thieves.
“All shop owners can do is make it more difficult for burglars,” LaCava said.
Bird Rock’s next merchant meeting will be held Wednesday, August 6 at Lupi’s 5518 La Jolla Boulevard, at 6 p.m.