I can agree that incidents like those that have happened in Pleasanton over the past few months are "crimes of opportunity." I feel that in any neighborhood, whether in Beverly Hills or Pleasanton, your property is subject to be stolen. I think that people need to realize that our world has changed and it isn't like it was 50 years ago where you could do such things. So lock your cars, close your garage doors, etc. unless you want to become a victim of a petty crime.

I do feel safe here, I grew up in this town when there were etill open fields before all the Peoplesoft and Oracle software giant companies and BART moved in. Preventable crimes or crimes of opportunity can be avoided if people remember that just because we feel safe doesn't mean we should let our guard down when it comes to common sense safety measures that are within our own personal control, such as locking home and car doors and windows. Its important that neighbors pay attention to what's going on in their neighborhoods also, suspicious activities, etc, and to report any such activities to the police. We want to keep our community safe and have to look out for each other.

Pleasanton is a safe town. These are fortunately not violent crimes, but simply people being taken advantage.

With that said, I know it is wrong to blame the victim, but these types of crimes would be less likely of occurring if people did not give the criminals the opportunity. People here live in their safe little box known as Pleasanton. Many here do not have, or have forgotten the street smarts taught by their parents or acquired from with living in more dangerous neighborhoods. All the time I see individuals, especially woman, walking or jogging alone. All the time I see people opening their car doors without needing to hit the unlock button. All the time I see expensive items left in these same unlocked cars.

After these people and / or their property become another crime statistic, they ask where the police are. What these people need to be asking is how could I have prevented this from happening to me? They need to ask themselves: If I was a criminal, how would I take advantage of my situation? Being able to answer these questions is the foundation for building street smarts. The next step is acting on the answers, and taking steps to prevent themselves from becoming a statistic.