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Burglaries Trending Down In Stockton, Homeowners Increasingly Turn To Surveillance Cams

STOCKTON (CBS13) - Crime statistics are in and the trend is down for burglaries.

It's good news for the port city – but that means little to a woman who is searching for small pieces of her family's legacy, swiped by a thief.

"He came in to the kitchen window and went straight upstairs," said Oksana Sandler of Stockton.

The thief took a perfect opportunity to thrash through a home looking for jewels by entering through a cracked window.

Fortunately for Sandler, this crook was caught on camera.

"I don't know if he knew I was going to come back or thought I was going to come back, but he went through in a hurry," she said.

Oksana has an alarm system and is vigilant with locking up, but was also in a hurry that day and didn't set the alarm.

"He took all my jewelry," she said, even using her own pillow case.

Among the jewels, four special rings she can't replace.

"It doesn't have a regular carats stamp. It has a 595 stamp, which is very unique to Russia," Sandler said.

It has left her family with an unsettling feeling.

"The jewelry that he stole is one thing, I know it's sentimental to but it's just the feeling that you failed to provide protection to your kids and now they're afraid of everything," she said.

Sandler, like many homeowners, installed surveillance cameras and here in Stockton it's helping.

"A lot of people are frustrated with the burglaries," said Officer Joe Silva with Stockton Police.

They show burglaries are down 22 percent and it may be in part because of surveillance provided to the department.

"Take the picture of the suspect in that video and blast it out on social media," he said.

Each week posting a Who's That Wednesday to help nab thieves.

While Sandler certainly hopes the man in this video gets caught, more than anything she hopes four unique rings somehow make it back home.

"It's not the value, but it's the value to my heart that it had," she said.

There are four rings. All have the stamp 595 on them. If you have any information on the rings or man in that video, call police.

While overall crime statistics are down for Stockton, violent crime offenses are up. The department will evaluate those particular crimes and says they'll look for ways to help hinder violent attacks.

Crime report from Stockton PD:

Homicides up from this month last year by 21%
Aggravated Assault up from this month last year by 13.9%
Violent Crime up from this month last year by 10.1%
Burglary down from this month last year by 22%
Property Crime down from this month last year by 9.8%
Arson down from this month last year by 27.7%

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