April 27, 2006

OPINION

Crime of opportunity strips reporter of the tools of her trade

By Jeanne Carbone Lewis
Staff Writer

I’m the type of person who is careful. I hold my purse tightly when I’m in a mall. I have my keys ready to gouge at a person in a deserted parking garage. But consider my surprise when my purse was snatched in New Almaden—a place where I have always felt safe.

Jeanne Carbone Lewis

“Everybody thinks this is Mayberry RFD but this is not the first time this has happened here,” said New Almaden Quicksilver Museum park interpreter Terri Sanislo-Williams, who had been a victim in the past.

The scene: A class at the New Almaden Community Club. A young man comes in and asks to use the restroom, sees the purse, brazenly grabs it and runs out the door in seconds. We immediately run out yelling, but the perpetrator has disappeared either up the hillside or down the creek where there are fresh skid marks. He has vanished with my belongings.

Cell phone service does not work in New Almaden even if I still had mine. But a neighbor hears the commotion and lends her phone to call 911.The sheriff’s office arrives, but a search of the area provides no suspects nor anyone who saw the thief. I am given a case number and told to call the detective’s department Monday.

A female reporter’s purse is not only filled with the usual woman’s paraphernalia— wallet, credit cards, cash, gift cards, a checkbook, makeup, glasses, brush and cell phone—but also with a reporter’s necessities such as a digital camera, tape recorder, notebooks and an assortment of pens. The total haul: over $1,000 in one quick moment of thievery. And the shock that this could happen in peaceful, rustic New Almaden.

But with any act of crime, there is always a mistake. This one was a classroom full of artists. The two eyewitnesses sketched a composite drawing of the thief. A description is created: approximately 5 feet, 9 inches tall, 150 pounds, early to mid 20s, light complexion, scraggy beard, light brown hair, eyes hazel to light brown, disheveled looking, wearing a gray knit wool cap with ear flaps, khaki army jacket and black and white striped shirt. The witnesses thought he knew the community center as he asked to use the restroom.

The rest of the afternoon is spent calling credit card companies to close accounts after listening to numerous recorded messages and a trip to the bank to close and open a new account. I close my Cingular cell phone account and am told I will have to pay for the remaining contract even if I don’t buy a new phone. Or buy out the contract in the amount of $300!

The three credit reporting agencies are notified; Experian Trans Union and Equifax. They say I will need to check again in three months to see if there are any new accounts opened in my name or with my social security number and recommend that I do this for several years. On to the Department of Motor Vehicles where the clerk insists on seeing a photo of me [don’t they have the old photo from my driver’s license?]. My husband shows him a picture of me with my dog. The clerk smiles, takes another picture for my new driver’s license, but I have no lipstick to apply. Frustrated that this will be a bad driver’s license photo that I will have to carry around for years, I’m really upset.

I call the Federal Trade Commission for a fraud alert. I get to listen to the standard recordings describing identity theft as the crime de jour until I finally talk to a representative who attaches my name with a fraud alert. She says I will need to contact Telecheck and Certegy so any checks written will be stopped at the merchant verifying the check. Certegy handles the request on the phone. Telecheck requires an affidavit from the bank and a police report. I call my insurance agent. With a $500 deductible, I could file a claim but am informed my homeowner’s policy bill will rise by 20 percent. Now I’m beginning to understand the word victim!

Have you seen this man? If you have any information regarding the above suspect call Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office Det. Dennis Moser at (408)808-4535. Case #06-111-0143B.

It’s been said the longer you live the more experiences you have. And if experience is the best teacher, the less surprised you become. I’ve heard that Europeans expect bad things to happen. Americans believe that life should be happy. Even our founding father Thomas Jefferson said “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

The next morning I receive a phone call. A Good Samaritan has found my social security card on Campbell Avenue across from a park on the sidewalk in front of Rage Salon. A search of the area on the street, the trash containers and the creek along the park proves fruitless. The understanding of victimization becomes very real. And as a photojournalist who carries her workplace in her purse, I struggle to replace important items.

Monday I call the sheriff’s office and speak to Det. Dennis Moser who is assigned to the case. I learn that the composite sketch will help in other crimes of the same nature.

“Usually these guys don’t just do it once,” said Moser. “The composite sketch will help with other crimes of the same MO. Maybe we can get him off the street for good.”

Different parts of the New Almaden area are under the jurisdiction of both the sheriff’s office and San Jose Police Department. Capt. Jack Farmer suggested that the thief took advantage of an “opportunistic moment.”

“We advise people to keep their possessions close to them,” said Capt. Farmer. “If they’re walking the parks, keep them locked in the trunk. If there are lockers, use them. San Jose has close to a million people and this type of crime can happen anywhere.”

As for me, I travel a lot lighter now. I have yet to receive my new checks and credit cards. I have another purse and lipstick. I haven’t replaced my wallet, digital camera or cell phone. But I carry something new now: Pepper spray.