String of break-ins in L.A. neighborhood has residents on edge

Josh DuBose
·2 min read
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Residents in a Pico-Robertson neighborhood say they are fed up and feeling helpless after repeated break-ins have shattered their sense of safety.

Surveillance cameras at a condo complex in the 800 block of Wooster Street show the building getting broken into.

The suspects look straight into the camera as they attempt to make entry through the front door.

Once inside, they roam the underground parking garage and start breaking into residents’ vehicles.

“I’ve had to call 911 three times in a span of five days, which is something I’ve never experienced before,” resident Kayla Lebo told KTLA’s Carlos Saucedo.

Along with the repeated break-ins and her car getting burglarized, she says she no longer feels safe.

“I’m feeling helpless. I have to walk around with pepper spray and a taser. I’m applying to get my CCW,” she said. “I don’t feel protected and when I call law enforcement, they’re not giving me any sense of security.”

Authorities at the Los Angeles Police Department said officers responded to the first break-in on Feb. 19, but then the building was hit by thieves two more times.

  • Pico-Robertson residents on edge after series of break-ins
    Thieves captured on surveillance cameras as they attempt to break into a condo complex in Pico Robertson.
  • Pico-Robertson residents on edge after series of break-ins
    Thieves captured on surveillance cameras as they attempt to break into a condo complex in Pico Robertson.
  • Pico-Robertson residents on edge after series of break-ins
    Thieves caught on camera after breaking into a condo complex in Pico-Robertson.
  • Pico-Robertson residents on edge after series of break-ins
    A thief seen in a Pico-Robert condo complex garage moments before smashing the window and burglarizing the vehicle. (Isaac Krupp)
  • Pico-Robertson residents on edge after series of break-ins
    A thief seen in a Pico-Robert condo complex garage smashing the window and burglarizing the vehicle. (Isaac Krupp)

“We’ve changed our locks. We have cameras everywhere,” resident Lisa Salvatore said. “They know they’re being recorded. They don’t care because they know they’re not going to get into trouble.”

Just two blocks over at a different apartment complex, a similar type of break-in unfolded that same week.

A camera from a resident’s Tesla captured a suspicious-looking person who appeared to be casing the complex’s garage.

“The guy is casually walking around my garage for 45 minutes,” Isaac Krupp told KTLA. “He’s looking around, breaks the window in the car next to me with a tool.”

It was his wife’s car that the thief hit.

“Ransacked her car, took Airpods, Airtags, backpack, whatever he could find from the trunk too,” Krupp said.

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Residents in the area are left feeling that if no one gets caught, these incidents could escalate.

“It’s unacceptable,” Salvatore said. “Imagine if these people come back and before they didn’t hurt us, but this time they come to the condos and break into some of our homes. That’s what I’m most scared about.”

KTLA has reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department about the spate of break-ins and is awaiting a response.

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