SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Residents in a Rancho Bernardo neighborhood are fed up with a crime problem they say has been growing over the last two years.
Westwood residents trace the problem to what they describe as an influx of parked cars from non-residents.
They accuse area condo complexes of not providing enough parking spots for their owners and say a restaurant which opened last year does not allow employees to park on-site. Both have led to more people parking on public streets in Westwood.
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And residents say those unattended cars have attracted thieves.
10News checked Crimemapping.com and found 14 reported crimes in the Westwood community in just August. Most are break-ins of cars and homes.
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Residents tell 10News they are considering banding together and pitching in to hire a private security company to do patrols - something which is uncommon for individual homeowners to do in San Diego, according to local security experts.
Rancho Bernardo restarted its Neighborhood Watch program last year, but members say they need more volunteers to sign up.
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They also say it's common for crime victims not to report those crimes to police, due to the hassle of long hold times on the SDPD non-emergency phone line. However, officers say it's critical to fill out official crime reports because if their statistics do not reflect an increase in crime, the department won't know to assign additional patrols to the area.
