[May 22, 2012] Vallejo youth social service agency burglarized, crucial equipment stolen Tweet May 22, 2012 (Times-Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Some Solano County youth who have stolen other people's things in the past, got a taste of that medicine when Vallejo's Youth and Family Services building recently was burglarized, agency officials said Monday. "Since they stole our entire TV system -- TV, VCR, DVD player -- we couldn't show the video we usually do, so we had a group discussion instead, on stealing other people's belongings," adolescent substance abuse program manager Donna Martin said Monday. "They saw when they came to group that their whole TV system had been taken, so that was the topic of group. Some have been arrested for stealing, so this gives them an idea what it's like when your property gets stolen." The agency serves some 30 youth each week, through programs for at-risk youth, for women with young children, for youth ordered to attend by the court system and others, officials said. Agency counselor Kelly Dixon said she tries to use such incidents as teachable moments and thinks some of her youthful clients learned something from it. "They were like, 'that's messed up,' " she said. "They were disappointed and discouraged. I would like to think some of them got it. I think it hit close to home when it was something taken from them -- from their group." Back-to-back break-ins last week, are the first in about a decade, board president Robin Gross said. It's unknown if the homeless people who have been camping under the stairs there behind 408 Tennessee St. are involved, but that, too, is a problem that must be resolved, she said. "We have a major problem in that we have homeless folks living in the back parking lot of our facility consistently," Gross said. "(Last) week the situation was raised to a new level and now we have been broke into. We lost a computer, printer and a TV which is used to show videos to our clients." No sensitive information was compromised by the password-protected computer's loss, Martin said. But, agency officials don't know how or when they're going to be able to replace the equipment, she said. Martin said a call from the agency's alarm company alerted her to the first break-in about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. Vallejo police no longer automatically respond to burglar alarms, especially when there's a history of false alarms. "We've had false alarms before, so we thought maybe that was what this was," Martin said. "So, when I got there at 8 a.m. I found we had been broken into and burglarized and when I called police they responded right way, and he took a list of what had been taken and suggested we get a fence because of the activity going on around the building." The stolen TV was recovered after it was found abandoned up the alley from the agency's building, Gross said. "We're cleaning this stuff up, like human waste and garbage, every day," she said. "We have clients coming in and it's not a good environment." New security measures are needed, but that's a tall order for a nonprofit struggling to survive the recession, Gross said. "To lose a computer and printer is a big deal for us," she said. "We're barely scraping by here, we're not like Bank of America over here; we can't afford it. We have no discretionary funds, and that's what really upset me." Agency officials said a temporary security guard and a new fence to be installed in coming days, will help alleviate both problems. Contact the agency at 647-1520. ___ (c)2012 Times-Herald (Vallejo, Calif.) Visit Times-Herald (Vallejo, Calif.) at www.timesheraldonline.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]