WRITTEN BY Coltrane Schaible

GRAPHIC BY Aria Kim-Brown

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Recently, multiple crimes have been committed in the Broadway Plaza area of Walnut Creek, including robberies at a Lululemon, Louis Vuitton, and a robbery at gunpoint. These have caused a large response by many, including increased police presence and security guards posted at shops. The businesses aren’t the only ones reacting, though. Some people are now more distrustful of others, as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, where, “A woman sitting on a bench…clutched her purse to her chest and appeared to grit her teeth when a reporter approached.” The suspects in said robberies have been arrested, such as the recent Lululemon robbery that may have been initiated by a group of people moving from shop to shop stealing merchandise and ‘returning’ it to other locations. However, not many Walnut Creek citizens have noticed any crimes (<-citation needed), likely due to the fact that they mainly take place at night, when there are fewer people who might witness a crime and thus try to stop it, or provide information that might help in identifying suspects. In fact, many Las Lomas students, including Ashton Hamiln (9) and Ayden Hernandez (9), have not reported seeing any crime.

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After the recent crimes, the police have replaced the barrier to Broadway Plaza, preventing cars from entering and being used as getaway vehicles or as battering rams to gain access to stores, as in the Louis Vuitton robbery, where a stolen car was used to break into the store by destroying the door, and the passengers attempted to steal the merchandise. Patrol Lieutenant (Walnut Creek Police) Holley Connors said in an interview that a problem with the prevention of robberies is that they, “…occur randomly and happen very quickly,” thus requiring short response time to prevent the escape of the perpetrators. To combat this issue, the police have been sending extra patrols downtown to speed up response times, as well as meeting with the owners of shops to discuss security. Connors also recommended shoppers not to carry large amounts of cash, or openly display expensive objects, such as watches or purses. The average amount of crime seems to be decreasing; however, the data that this is based on is from 2023 and may not reflect current happenings in January. However, according to LexisNexis®’s crime map, a large portion of recent thefts, including robberies, car theft, and residential burglaries, have been committed in the downtown area of Walnut Creek, though that is likely normal, considering it is an area with extremely high traffic and thereby has a larger amount of people there to commit crimes. Also, the majority of the crimes on the map are from December 2023 or later, despite the map recording crimes from the past six months, which suggests that more crimes have been committed downtown than have usually happened in the past.

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It’s still safe to go downtown, however, as nearly all of the incidents were at night. Besides, pedestrians will likely be safe from being robbed, as the majority of the thefts were from stores. Besides, the increased police and security presence will deter people from trying to steal more items. It is likely this stream of illegal activities will subside, and citizens can get back to their normal, crime-free lives.