On many evenings, around 1 to 2 a.m. Garlic City Billiards owner
Bob Tapella said he notices intruders lurking in downtown Gilroy’s
alleyways.
On many evenings, around 1 to 2 a.m. Garlic City Billiards owner Bob Tapella said he notices intruders lurking in downtown Gilroy’s alleyways.
Men on bikes with dark clothing, gloves and flashlights roam the streets and alleyways of downtown Gilroy look for cars to burglarize. The thieves, who Tapella calls “cranksters,” often leave shattered glass in their wake.
“They’re not out exercising, let me tell you,” Tapella said last week.
Police say they are stepping up patrols to try to curb downtown crime, and police logs indicate they even have caught people with burglary tools on Monterey Street within the past couple of weeks. Several merchants reported break-ins within the past month, and some believe that many crimes remain unreported. Yet, while some business owners have mentioned problems with automobile break-ins and vandalism, most downtown employees say they feel safe in downtown Gilroy.
A staff member at Econo Furniture, who only identified himself as Alex, said that within the past week some teens used a knife to scratch the windows of downtown businesses. He also said he sees a lot of broken glass from beer bottles and other junk in the store’s back parking lot that he believes stem from downtown club-goers on Friday and Saturday nights.
Still, he said his store has had not suffered any problems.
“We’re way better than Salinas,” he said.
Similarly, antique dealers Joyce Duarte and Jane Miller at Collective Past said there are relatively few problems in their section of downtown during the day – with the exception of shoplifting.
However, Duarte noted that a man who lived upstairs from the business had his car broken into last week, and Miller said that she feels uncomfortable loading furniture at the store at night.
Tapella said most of the criminal activity downtown takes place at night, and that many merchants are not aware of it. Tapella said he has operated a business downtown for 16 years, and things have never been as bad as they are now. He attributes an increase in crime to a tough economy and fewer officers on the streets because of layoffs and furloughs.
“I guess patrolling is a thing of the past,” Tapella said.
However, police said they have made a concerted effort to stop in on the downtown.
Sgt. Wes Stanford said police sometimes will patrol areas during “discretionary time” – when they are not responding to specific incidents.
However, more recently police have done targeted enforcement in response to a specific complaint.
Gary Walton, who owns several downtown buildings and runs Lizarran Tapas Restaurant, said he talked to police about problems with break-ins downtown that had occurred before his restaurant opened Nov. 5. It appears more police have been driving through the downtown area since that time, he said.
Walton also hired parking attendants to ensure that non-patrons do not use Lizarran’s lot and to keep watch for criminal activity, he said.
“It doesn’t hurt to have another set of eyes out there,” Walton said.
Gilroy Chamber of Commerce President Susan Valenta hopes to see more merchants taking the initiative to improve downtown.
“Perhaps the attitudes need to change, that we can’t depend on police for everything,” she said.
Valenta said she has never felt unsafe in downtown Gilroy, but said residents should take precautions wherever they are.
She hopes to see downtown property owners improve their lighting and use security cameras that can be accessed by the police department. An increase in apartment units that sit atop downtown businesses also should help, as residents can watch for potential problems, she said.
Absentee landlords should keep their property in good condition, she said, stating that broken windows on businesses can become an “attractive nuisance.”
Similar to Valenta, The Nimble Thimble owner Dave Peoples said he has heard that there has been criminal activity downtown, but he has not been privy to it. He has heard that many of the car break-ins have taken place along the alley next to the railroad, which is out of view of most areas on Monterey Street.
Still, he has women working in his store until 9 p.m., and none of them has expressed feeling unsafe, he said.
Eric Howard, president of the Gilroy Downtown Business Association, believes crime actually has declined in recent years, with fewer fights and police response calls since clubs, such as Chips and Salsa closed.
He gets tired of people’s negative perceptions of downtown, adding that some of those sentiments may be based upon images of the past, he said.
“It’s a neat little town at night,” he said. “It’s a good place with good restaurants.”
Crime maps of Gilroy indicate that much of the crime is taking place west of downtown on Church or Eigleberry streets or in eastern Gilroy, he said.
Valenta and Walton both noted that crime is not specific to downtown Gilroy. Walton has been active in Morgan Hill in the past, and he said that city has problems as well.
Gilroy’s Premium Outlets also has problems with car burglaries, he said.
“I don’t want to paint downtown as any worse than anyplace else because I don’t think it is,” Walton said.
Still, he said some downtown crime likely goes unreported because the victims either do not have the computer literacy skills to file a police report, are driving without a license or have some other reason why they do not wish to speak with police.
In fact, different areas of Gilroy can be prone to crime depending on what time of day it is, Stanford said. For instance, downtown Gilroy bars and Wal-Mart may have more issues late at night, while police may respond to more issues at the outlet mall during the day when there are more people around.
He said most downtown-related crime he encounters is the typical bar crime, such as public intoxication and people driving under the influence.
It seems that police have had far fewer problems with fights downtown since the clubs Chips and Salsa and the Crazy Coyote closed, he said.
Auto burglaries often are committed by people who are getting money to feed a drug habit, Stanford said. Often, with auto burglaries, police will step up enforcement and make an arrest, halting the problem for a while, he said.
Meanwhile, people can do their part to avoid auto break-ins by refraining from placing valuables or backpacks and suitcases within sight inside their vehicles, Stanford said.
“People shouldn’t leave anything inside the car that they wouldn’t leave on the hood of their car,” Stanford said. “That’s a good rule of thumb.”
