CAMBRIDGE POLICE DEPARTMENT

1997 Annual Crime Report

LARCENY

Larceny is the unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession of another. It includes crimes such as shoplifting, pocket-picking, thefts from motor vehicles, thefts of auto parts and accessories, horse thefts, and bicycle thefts, in which no use of force, violence, fraud, or trespass occurs. In the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, this crime category does not include embezzlement, "con" games, forgery, and worthless checks. Motor vehicle theft is also excluded from this category, as it is a separate crime index offense.

Larceny is the most common "Index" or "Part I" crime, accounting for just over 60 percent of the serious crime total. Larceny is one of the few Index Crimes to show no clear long-term trend. Perhaps as many of 50 percent of all larcenies committed are never reported to the police, making analysis of this crime difficult.

*In previous years, Larcenies from Residences were counted with Larcenies from Buildings (and some were categorized as Other Larcenies. Larcenies of License Plates and Larcenies of Services were both categorized as Other Larcenies. Readers with copies of the 1996 Annual Report will note a discrepancy in the larceny figures above (and in the Business District section), as the 1996 data was re-classified, for this report, to follow the new categorization scheme. The 1996 larceny total (2973), of course, was not affected by the new categorization scheme.

Six of the nine categories of larceny registered decreases when compared to 1996. Shoplifting, which rose by 81 incidents (24 percent) was the only major larceny category to show an increase.

Larceny from Buildings

Larcenies from Buildings are non-burglary thefts from commercial establishments. "Non-burglary" means that either the offender had a specific right to be on the premises, or that the building was open to the general public, and that no force was used to gain entry to the building where the theft was committed.

The 556 larcenies from buildings reported in 1997 equal about 60 percent of the totals reported at the beginning of the decade.

The following are the most common Larceny from Buildings scenarios:

Someone walks into an office building at opening, closing, or lunch time, when people are moving around and strangers are less conspicuous. Often, the suspect poses as a maintenance, repair, or delivery person. The offender grabs some office property and walks out of the building, usually with no one seeing him. Laptop computers are a favorite target of these thieves. This scenario accounts for 25–30 percent of larceny from building reports.

A thief pries open a locker or other depository, usually at a fitness club or school. This accounts for 15 to 20 percent of the larceny from building total.

An employee of a commercial establishment leaves his or her personal property in a "back room," behind a counter, or in a desk, where he or she thinks it is safe. Later, the property is missing. This accounts for 10 to 15 percent of larceny from building reports.

A diner momentarily leaves his or her coat, bag, wallet, cellular phone, or other property unattended. The property is stolen during the diner's absence. This accounts for five to 10 percent of the larceny from building total, but keep in mind that if the property is stolen while the diner is present, the theft is categorized as a Larceny from a Person.

Five to 10 percent of larceny from building reports involve "forgotten" property. Someone leaves a wallet on a store counter, a purse in the restroom, a bag in a classroom, or a jacket in a bar. Generally, the victim notices his or her error within an hour, returns, and finds the property gone.

Other scenarios, making up less than seven percent, involve tools stolen from construction sites, unattended property stolen while shopping or during recreation, and thefts of a day's deposits committed by store employees (but not embezzlement, which is categorized under "Fraud")

Historically, larceny from buildings has been the major crime in Kendall Square and Harvard Square, but it has declined about 50 percent in each district since the early 1990s. Increased security and employee awareness have had a major impact in curtailing this type of theft. The current "hot spots" are in East Cambridge. At the Galleria, the theft of shoppers' items at the Food Court, theft of employee property from "back rooms" of stores, and theft committed by store employees is becoming a serious problem. In the rest of the neighborhood, laptop computers and other expensive office equipment are disappearing at an alarming rate, and theft of personal property from health club lockers is becoming a more serious problem.

Larceny from Motor Vehicles

Larcenies from Motor Vehicles involve an offender either breaking into a car and stealing valuables within or stealing an exterior accessory (such as tires and hubcaps) from an automobile.

In 1997, thirty percent of all larcenies from motor vehicles involved car accessories, such as hubcaps, tires, car stereos, mirrors, and seat backs. The other 70 percent were thefts of non-accessories such as gym bags, wallets, cash, personal papers, eyeglasses, and cellular telephones. Seventy percent of the stolen "accessories" were car radios and stereos ripped from the dashboard. Of the "non-accessories," the most stolen items were cellular telephones. One hundred and fifty-eight cellular phones were stolen from cars in 1997, accounting for 36 percent of the "non-accessory" thefts and 26 percent of the total thefts.

About 80 percent of larcenies from motor vehicles are accomplished by breaking into the car-usually by smashing a window or by prying a lock.

Throughout 1996, the Cambridge Police Department assigned a high priority to the early interdiction of larceny from motor vehicles patterns. The result was a 22 percent drop in larcenies from motor vehicles citywide, particularly heavy in saturated areas of Kendall Square and MIT.

In 1997, the Cambridge Police Department took its focus away from these two neighborhoods and concentrated on the high-theft blocks of Harvard Street and Broadway in Mid-Cambridge. This interdiction apparently paid off, with a decline of 61 percent in this neighborhood.

This year, East Cambridge and Cambridgeport reported the highest number of thefts. Both neighborhoods increased from last year. East Cambridge has remained a "hot spot"-reporting between 100 and 150 theft each year-since the neighborhood experienced rapid commercial growth at the beginning of the decade. Each commercial parking lot and garage in the neighborhood reports dozens of thefts each year, including two patterns in 1997. The overriding factor in Cambridgeport, like Mid-Cambridge before 1997, is a high residential population whose cars, parked overnight on the street, provide tempting targets. The Crime Analysis Unit tracked at least two patterns through this neighborhood in 1997.

Larcenies of License Plates

A crime related to Larcenies from Motor Vehicles is the self-explanatory Larcenies of License Plates, which decreased 11 percent between 1996 and 1997. Stolen plates are often used to replace license plates on stolen automobiles of the same make and model, or to give a plate to an unregistered motor vehicle. Since the theft of a license plate is often unnoticed and unreported for several weeks, the thief's stolen or unregistered car is somewhat protected from detection during that time.

Larceny of Bicycles

For the third consecutive year, larceny of bicycles declined in Cambridge; the five percent decline for 1997 follows a eight percent decline in 1996 and a 13 percent drop in 1995. Hopefully, this trend will continue. Between 1989 and 1994, bicycle theft exhibited a sharp ascent, soaring from an average of 270 per year in the 1980s to 575 in 1993. The recent declines reflect, perhaps, the increased publicity given to this crime, the greater availability of bicycle racks, and a crime-prevention conscious public. (The Cambridge Police Department's bicycle theft statistics do not include thefts reported to the MIT or Harvard University Police Departments. These additional thefts could add several hundred to the theft total.)

The higher average numbers in the 1990s bespeak the increasing "professionalization" of bicycle theft. The Cambridge Police Department has, on several occasions, arrested teams of thieves working out of vans, stealing four to eight bicycles a night. Like automobile parts, bicycle parts have proven profitable for fencing. Consequently, bicycle "chop shops" operate out of home garages the way automobile "chop shops" operated out of repair and service garages in the 1970s and 1980s.

About 80 percent of bicycle thefts fall between May and September, when bicycles pack the streets and sidewalks. August traditionally holds the most thefts. They occur most often between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. The police arrest suspects in a scant two or three percent of the incidents; generally, the thief goes unseen. Locks present little difficulty to bicycle thieves, who often bring bolt cutters or pry bars with them; over half of all stolen bicycles had locks on them at the time of theft.

Bicycle theft remains densest in the Harvard Square area, including Brattle, Eliot, Winthrop, Church, Dunster, JFK, and Bennett Streets, where pedestrians often find it difficult not to trip over the masses of bicycles parked there during the summer. By far, this area holds the highest concentration. Other significant clusters appear around the CambridgeSide Galleria, MIT, Porter Square, Central Square, Cambridge Rindge & Latin High School, and Kendall Square, along lower Massachusetts Avenue, and around the other various schools in the city.

One trend that the Crime Analysis Unit will continue to monitor is the increase in the theft of bicycles from porches, yards, hallways, and garages in residential areas all over the city.

The Cambridge Police Department recovers an average of around 75 bicycles each year. Of the recovered bicycles, the department can trace only three to five percent back to their original owners via serial number. The department sponsors an annual program which disposes of the remainder by giving them to school children.

Larceny from the Person

Larceny from the Person describes pocket-picking or any theft that occurs within the victim's area of control. The thefts are non-confrontational, and usually the victim is not aware of the theft until after it has occurred. If any confrontation between offender and victim takes place, the crime is recorded as a Robbery.

Larceny from the person fell 25 percent in 1997, continuing a trend of decline that started in 1990.

Most larcenies from the person fall into one of three main scenarios:

 

A diner places his or her jacket over the back of a chair, or places her purse under her chair. Someone sitting behind the victim goes through the coat or purse, taking the valuables within, or takes the coat or purse entirely. This accounts for 40 percent of larcenies from the person. "Hot spots" for this crime include the CambridgeSide Galleria Food Court and the various bars and restaurants around Harvard Square.

While the victim is walking through a public place, a pickpocket stealthily reaches into the victim's coat, purse, or backpack and removes valuables. This scenario accounted for about 30 percent of the larceny from the person reports in 1997, but this percentage is ever decreasing. Pocket-picking requires a particular skill that modern criminals are increasingly failing to develop. Harvard Square and Central Square report the highest pocket-picking numbers, with concentrations between noon and 4:00 p.m.

A shopper, usually in a supermarket, keeps her purse in her shopping cart. While she is distracted selecting merchandise, someone pilfers the purse from the cart. This accounts for about 10 percent of reported thefts. This type of theft is not localized in any particular area of the city.

 

Shoplifting

Shoplifting incidents increased 24 percent from 1996. The majority of this rise can be attributed to increased security and arrests at the CambridgeSide Galleria and in Harvard Square (most of them at the Harvard Coop). Arrests in these two business districts make up 73 percent of the shoplifting total. With the loss of Lechmere and its prolific security force, we may expect shoplifting incidents to decline in 1998 at the Galleria.

Shoplifters usually fall into one of four categories:

Juvenile Shoplifters who steal on a dare, to impress their peers, to get an "adrenaline rush," or to compensate for lack of money.

Impulse Shoplifters who seize a sudden chance, such as an unattended dressing room or a blind aisle. Sometimes, the "impulse" is a long line or sudden lack of money.

Alcoholics, vagrants, and drug addicts, who steal erratically and clumsily. When caught, this type of shoplifter is more likely than others to get violent (see "Shop Owner/Patron" assaults in the Assault section).

Kleptomaniacs who steal to satisfy a psychological need.

Professionals, who steal expensive items and resell them to fences or "flea markets."

Since shoplifting incidents are generally only reported when an arrest is made, an increase in shoplifting may be viewed positively: more thieves are being caught. On the other hand, since the vast majority of shoplifting incidents are unseen and go unknown until the store checks its inventory, underreporting of shoplifting is a serious problem. The actual shoplifting number may be six to ten times the statistic given in this report.

Larceny from Residences

This year marks the first that the Cambridge Police Department has analyzed Larcenies from Residences-non-burglary thefts from apartments, hallways, garages, and yards. "Non-burglary" means that no force or trespass was involved in the theft: the thefts are committed by people who have the right to be on the property. They include thefts committed by guests, roommates, family members, workers, and home health care providers. They also include thefts committed from common areas of apartment buildings, and thefts committed from property surrounding a house, such as the front yard, walkway, or tool shed. Since larcenies from residences are usually committed by someone who knows the victim, pattern identification and intervention by the police department is difficult. This crime decreased seven percent from 1996.

Larceny of Services

This crime includes taxi cab fare evasion, "dining and ditching," "gassing and going," and other failures to pay for services already rendered. There were 26 of these crimes reported in 1996 and 31 reported in 1997. The majority of these incidents involved cab fare, parking lot, and restaurant check evasions. Larceny of gasoline was also a problem during the summer. The total for this crime is rounded out by a handful of incidents in which owners stole their own automobiles from service garages to avoid paying their repair bills.

See Larceny Prevention Tips

Back to the 1997 Annual Report Index

Back to the CPD Home Page