Marine worried about family safety

Marine Sgt. Jeremy Langford is worried — not about the war in Iraq (he’s been there twice and is trained to confront the dangers of military combat) but the safety of his family here. On Monday, January 17, a man was robbed at knifepoint in front of Langford’s Fallbrook home. Two days later, between 4 p.m.Tuesday and 6:45 a.m Wednesday, thieves broke into Langford’s truck at the same location.

Langford immediately called the San Diego Sheriff’s Department dispatch, summoning them to the Pinecrest Apartments on Clemmens Lane between Mission and Hill streets.

After calling three more times, at 9:15 a.m. he was still waiting for a deputy to arrive.

Sheriff’s deputy Roger Logan said, “The only way a deputy would not show up is if there is a higher priority call nearby. Logan says an automobile accident in the vicinity of Deer Springs Road occurred during the same time period and may have prevented a timely response to Langford’s call. After a check of the dispatch records, Logan also says Dispatch at 7:20 a.m. advised Langford of the higher priority call and told him “to expect an hour delay.”

Langford is a career martial arts instructor for the Marine Corps in his second enlistment and is readying for his third deployment. Until this week, he believed the apartment was safe for his family during his absence.

“The neighbors say this is an ongoing event, he says, then relates his involvement with the Monday robbery attempt. At 7 a.m., Langford and his wife returned home to find an older man standing by a car parked alongside the curb at the Pinecrest Apartments. The man was trying to remove a broken key from the ignition. When Langford offered to help, the man told him he’d been robbed at knifepoint by “four Hispanic kids and two adults in their twenties.” The man said the group was standing across the street and approached him, demanding money. When he refused, they broke the key in the ignition, then ran off. The unidentified robbery victim did not report the incident to the Sheriff’s Department. Amy Smith, manager of the Pinecrest Apartments, knew of the incident. She says there has been a string of car break-ins in the last two months, but “no one is breaking windows.” CDs and things like that are being taken from cars with open windows. For Langford, the theft was more important than a CD. Thieves took 100 pounds of military gear from his locked toolbox. Smith believes there is a gang in Fallbrook who do this periodically, get arrested, then after several months get out and start all over again. Because of this, to ensure safer living conditions at Pinecrest, Smith is organizing a Neighborhood Watch program for the 104-unit complex.

Despite the Neighborhood Watch groups and individual precautions taken by residents and businesses, the explosive population growth in greater Fallbrook may be creating an imbalance to the number of deputies assigned to adequately protect its 300-square mile area. If Fallbrook’s San Diego Sheriff’s Substation had additional budget for more deputies, perhaps the cycle of thefts could be broken. “For 12 years, the sheriff’s department has been trying to convince the county that increased funding for staff is needed, Logan says. No small comfort to Sgt Langford and the other mostly military families who reside at Pinecrest and put their lives in peril for our safety.