Mayor Art Madrid Was Victim of $12,300 Home Burglary in August 2010

Eleven months after the crime, La Mesa police have no suspects in a burglary of an Eastridge Drive home that saw the owner lose $12,300 in property and cash, including a handgun and jewelry. Among the 234 residential burglaries last year in the city, only several dozen were cleared.

That’s bad news for the Eastridge victim—Mayor Art Madrid.

In response to a California Public Records Act request, La Mesa police on Wednesday released details of the burglary of Madrid’s home southeast of Helix Charter High School.

The burglary occurred between 8 and 11 a.m. Aug. 25, 2010—a Wednesday—according to police Lt. Dan Willis.

“An unknown suspect or suspects forced entry into (the) residential dwelling,” Willis said in a report. “The suspect(s) used an unknown tool to slice the ground level office window screen located on the west side of the home. The suspect(s) entered the home and ransacked the office and the master bedroom.”

Willis said the $12,300 loss included a revolver, a wrist watch, jewelry, wallet and currency—as well as two dresser drawers.  

“DNA and photographic evidence were obtained from the scene,” Willis said. “The case is still open. No suspects.”

Police Chief Al Lanning said Thursday that he had “no way to accurately predict whether or not the case will be solved.”

When asked about the case, which hasn’t been publicized until now, Madrid said in an email Wednesday: “The investigation is still ongoing. I have no comments.”

Lanning said Madrid didn’t ask anyone in his department to suppress information about the case—which occurred 69 days before Madrid was elected to a sixth term as mayor.

And Lanning said he didn’t personally oversee the case, noting: “I asked for updates a couple of times, but I do that with other cases.”

The case was handled in a routine way, he said: “The number of detectives assigned to a case depends on what work needs to be done, but nothing extraordinary was done in this case.”

The police chief also detailed how the department decides which crimes merit a press release.

“We don’t have written criteria for what events trigger a press release,” Lanning said. “We often issue a press release in the event of a robbery due to the serious nature of the crime and public interest in these types of crimes.”

Burglaries don’t routinely trigger a press release, he said, “but may if there is information that would be of public interest.”

“For instance, if there is an associated pursuit or law enforcement helicopter involvement, a press release would be helpful in letting people know what the law enforcement activity was related to,” he said.

What does this case say about residential protection from property crime?

Lanning said, “The safety and integrity of any residence depends on several factors, such as the physical security measures in place, the ability or inability of neighbors to see the residence, especially vulnerable areas, etc.,” Lanning said.

In the first six months of 2011, he said, La Mesa had 71 residential burglaries—or about one out of every 340 households in the city.

Still, the city experienced a drop in residential burglary last year, according to Lanning’s fourth-quarter operations report for 2010.

In the report, Lanning noted that “the number of property crimes increased by 14 percent in 2010 compared to 2009, with all crime categories showing some level of increase with the exception of residential burglary, which fell by 7 percent compared to 2009.”

In 2010, 234 homes were burglarized in La Mesa, compared with 251 for 2009, the report said. And of the 427 burglaries in the city last year (including commercial burglaries) 54 were cleared—or about 13 percent.

Madrid declined to say whether he had boosted his home security in the wake of the break-in, but Lanning said: “As a matter of routine, we send burglary victims information about crime prevention measures they can take and the availability of free security inspections.”

Lanning added: “I’m sure the mayor is aware of crime prevention information available on the city website.”