One of our board members, Steve Liu, recently interviewed homeowners who live in Quail Ridge and had experienced a home break-in. He was able to summarize his findings and we wanted to pass those along to everyone in the community. This is excellent information that can be used to minimize the chances of you experiencing the same problem.

Steve and Cher Bettencourt, also on our board, both led an effort to organize a formal Neighborhood Watch for Quail Ridge. Anyone interested in doing the same for their own neighborhood can just email back to encinitasranchhoa.org and they will contact you. We would welcome the opportunity to organize more of these groups in other parts of Encinitas Ranch. 

GENERAL

• We’ve had about 7 break-ins over the past 10-15 years within the Ravean/Dylan/Lauren Court locations.

• What’s concerning is that 40% of them occurred in 2025!  It just emphasizes the importance of watching out for each other and implementing safety measures now.

WHERE WERE THE OWNERS?

• These were evenly split into 3 categories:

• 1. Away on vacation
  2. Second home / vacation home
  3. Briefly away for a few hours (dinner/running errands, etc)

• Don’t assume break-ins only happen when you’re on vacation – a third of the time they happen when you’re just out for a few hours.
• If you have a vacation home, please add additional security measures as you are at higher risk.
• If you are leaving for vacation, consider notifying the sheriff’s office to do routine house checks. They do this for free for you.  Several of the homeowners began doing this post burglary. 

TIME OF DAY

• Typically, middle of the day or early evening

 

HOW LONG WERE THE BURGLARS INSIDE?

• • Varied from minutes to hours to overnight

• The police have told us that alarm systems help because it limits the damage.  Instead of hours, criminals only a few minutes before police arrive.

HOUSE LOCATION

• 100% of the houses were located with a backyard bordering a canyon or the golf course.
• Not only is this an out-of-sight way for criminals to enter/exit the property but it’s a great way for them to case houses looking for ones without any lights or activity. 

• If you border a canyon/golf course – consider a backyard camera and automated lights in your kitchen/bedroom to make it look like you are home.

 

ENTRY LOCATION

• Always through the back of the house and evenly split between entering through the first vs the second floor.

• Basically, your first floor needs to be protected but don’t forget about glass break/motion detectors/locking your upstairs too.  They’re all in play.

ENTRY METHOD

• 90% of the time, the entry method was by breaking a window/door.  In all these cases the alarm system was not turned on.

• There was one incident where the alarm system was ON and they cut a hole in the back glass door to bypass the glass break sensor and somehow bypassed the motion detector (there are ways) or it was defective.

• Just make sure to use your alarm system and consider putting in a camera system. 

EXIT METHOD

• Burglars left most of the time through the backyard into the canyon/golf course.
• There were some though who had a getaway car that picked them up in the front

 

DISCOVERY

• Most of the time it’s our gardeners who find the break-in and notify the homeowners

• Consider teaming up with your gardeners and give them contact info of our block captains so they can report anything strange.
• Our dog walkers and gardeners are truly the eyes and ears of our neighborhood!

 

ROBBERY DETAILS

• Usually focused on the master bedroom where most valuables are stored
• Nearly always portable, high value stuff….watches/jewelry/cash
• Safes were either broken into, attempted to be opened or taken (if small)

• Make sure to bolt your safes down – this played a role in protecting some of our neighbors 

 

ALARM SYSTEM?

• In all but the one case above, an alarm system was in place but NOT turned on.

• Please use your alarm systems. Most systems today have a phone app to easily turn things on/off.  You usually can also add a remote to your keychain that allows you to arm your house from afar.

 

CAMERA SYSTEM?

• No one had a camera system in place.

• There are many camera systems that can be installed without too much technical skill … Ring, Wyze, Eufy, etc.  These provide a second extremely helpful perimeter of detection AND they protect you when you forget to turn on your alarm

 

AUTOMATED LIGHTING

• Many folks had exterior lighting and motion detector lighting but nobody had automated interior lighting to make the home looked lived in.

• An easy prevention method to implement and now with LED lighting you don’t have to feel as guilty leaving the lights on!
• Another recommendation was to leave a TV on when on vacation to make it sound like someone is home.

WHAT TIPPED THEM OFF?

• A few themes came up – they’re all supposition and we shouldn’t look at every stranger as a criminal but there were some interesting insights:

• Contractors working nearby taking notice?  We’ve actually heard this before from security firms where they say it’s not the contractors themselves but their assistants who may be more transient and less vetted.

• Rideshare pickup? Several folks mentioned when the Uber/Lyft picked them up it was clear to the everyone on the street that they were leaving for a big vacation.

• Rideshare conversation?  Some folks wondered if their conversations with the rideshare drivers about their vacation may have resulted in the tip off.

• I think the learning here is to just try and be discrete when leaving with rideshare (not sure what else you can do) and when chatting with drivers, make sure they think there’s someone still at home.