By Elizabeth Cloutman

Los Altos Hills, an area described by Sgt. Mark Eastus, public information officer at the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Department, as “one of the safest communities you could live in,” appears to have experienced a minor crime wave in recent weeks, including burglaries at Town Hall and the Purissima Hills Water District office, robberies at the Heritage House, which is the Los Altos Hills sheriff’s substation, and a home on Becky Lane, and a series of “five or six” residential auto thefts and burglaries of unlocked garages in an unincorporated area near Mora Drive and Eastbrook School.

Deputy Jeff Hunter of the Los Altos Hills substation of the sheriff’s department said Monday that the alleged perpetrator of the auto thefts was nabbed late last week, when officials discovered most of the stolen property in a home during a routine probation home search. The other crimes remain unsolved.

At 2:10 a.m., March 18, a deputy on routine patrol in Los Altos Hills noticed broken windows at both Town Hall and the Purissima Hills Water District office on Fremont Road, said Lt. Ernie Smedlund of the Westside Substation. After checking the area, the deputy found Heritage House, located in the same area, had also been broken into. City employees later discovered that a computer was missing from Heritage House, City Manager Maureen Cassingham said. Nothing was taken from either the water district office or Town Hall. The computer theft and broken windows amounted to losses of less than $1,000, Cassingham said.

On the evening of March 22, jewelry was stolen from a home on Becky Lane, near Foothill College, as the residents ate dinner, apparently unaware of the intruder, Eastus said. One of the residents after noticing an open sliding glass door in a bedroom, discovered jewelry items had been taken.

Last week, Hunter said, “five or six” residents in the Mora Drive area reported personal property stolen from their unlocked vehicles and unlocked garages, including cameras, a laptop computer and a $4,500. bicycle with $800 wheel rims. “All the cars were parked in the driveway and were left unlocked,” he said. Most of the missing property was recovered during the probation search,

Smedlund advised Los Altos Hills residents to report any suspicious vehicles or persons seen in the area by calling 911 “immediately.” Hunter also reminded residents to “make sure they know their neighbors and their neighbors’ vehicles” and to keep all doors and windows to cars and residences routinely locked.