Car break-ins, burglaries leave neighborhood worried

A southeast Bend woman had her car stolen from right in front of her house Friday night, only for it to be returned down the block with a variety of damage.

There have been 82 reported burglaries and thefts in Bend since the start of the year, including 17 this month, according to an online crime-mapping tool.

Larkspur neighborhood resident Reetu Goyal said Monday with the recent thefts and burglaries, safety for her, her husband and two kids is a priority.

“If something like that is happening, maybe the cops can increase the patrols because this is a family neighborhood,” Goyal said. “A lot of little kids are here. A little bit more safety around here would be nice.”

Goyal hasn’t been a victim of these thefts, but has taken precaution after she found teenagers messing with solar lights in her front yard.

“Since that day, we always started parking it inside, thinking that maybe somebody knew we called the cops, so they might just come and scratch the cars or do something, you know,” Goyal said. “You never know during the middle of the night.”

The culprits who hit Mayhew’s house over the weekend have yet to be caught, leaving her, her fianc and three children looking for answers.

“It’s like our family truck,” Cherie Mayhew said Sunday. “There’s a car seat in the back of it and everything like that. For somebody to take that and do what they did to it, it’s scary and messed up.”

Mayhew went to start her car in the Larkspur subdivision early Saturday morning before realizing it was nowhere to be found. She said her fianc forgot to lock it, but is still surprised it was stolen from her neighborhood.

“It’s one of those kind of neighborhoods where you borrow sugar from your neighbor — you trust everyone around here, and it’s not that big of a deal,” Mayhew said.

Just one month ago, her car was broken into, and the thieves stole an iPod, among other things.

This time, nothing tangible was taken, but damage was done and their sense of security was shattered.

“I mean, I started crying and everything, because we saved for quite some time to afford a bigger truck that would fit all of us and do everything we needed, and we just got it maybe three months ago,” Mayhew said.

Mayhew and her fianc are using this misfortune to pass down a valuable lesson to their kids.

“It doesn’t matter what it is if you’re taking from somebody else,” Mayhew said they told them. “It could be something as small as $5. Those $5 could mean a lot more to somebody else than it could possibly mean to you.”

Mayhew is expected to meet with an insurance adjuster on Monday to find out the extent of the damages.

Bend police encourage you to lock your doors and try to keep valuable items out of sight in your cars overnight.