A series of break-ins have occurred over the past weeks in the Black Diamond area, including the Post Office.

Black Diamond Police Commander, Larry Colagiovanni, said the main issue with the community and break-ins, is that people are leaving the doors to their cars and houses unlocked.

He said it is unusual to have so many break-ins within the Black Diamond area, but he also said we are past those days where it was OK to leave doors unlocked.

“These guys like to look for crimes of opportunity,” Colagiovanni said. “They go around to cars and houses and they’ll keep trying the doors until they find some that are open.”

Colagiovanni said the Post Office burglary was more “brazen” because the burglars broke in and pried open the postal boxes, stealing packages of all sorts.

“One of the things we recommended to them (the Post Office staff), which they don’t have, which is kind of surprising, is they do not have any video security so we recommended to them that they do that (get video surveillance),” he said.

He said video surveillance is helping the Black Diamond Police Department solve some of the neighborhood thefts.

“One of the people in the Diamond Glen neighborhood, actually had video surveillance, so we do have some pretty good video footage of some suspects,” Colagiovanni said.

According to Colagiovanni, he said he thinks the crimes in the neighborhood are being done by the same person (with the exception of the Post Office). He said the person, or people, that are doing this are stealing the same items over and over again.

These items seem to include expensive tools for the most part according to Colagiovanni.

“In one case we had one gentleman leave about $1,500 worth of items stolen right out of his yard, so we just want to kind of remind everybody that you need to secure all these kinds of items,” he said.

Colagiovanni said he is confident they will find out who the burglars are because of the surveillance the resident caught.

“(There are) ongoing investigations into all of the cases and we feel pretty positive we’ll be able to solve at least some of them for sure,” he said.

To help the police department, Colagiovanni said residents should call law enforcement if they see any suspicious activity, suspicious cars in their neighborhood or if they have any leads on the cases.

“We don’t mind coming to anything, we just want people to call,” Colagiovanni said.

Tips to prevent burglaries

• Lock doors to your home and car.
• Don’t leave delivered packages laying around (i.e holidays packages).
• Do not leave personal items such as purse, phone or wallet, in plain sight in your car
• Trim shrubbery and bushes in front of windows or doors (burglars use this to their advantage and hid behind them while they break into a window or door)

Call your local police department if you see any suspicious activity at 253-631-1012 or email them at contactus@blackdiamondwa.gov.