Ridge Club Burglaries Puzzle Police

     Living in a gated community, complete with a guard shack and 24-hour security, one might expect to be free from the worry of a home burglary. But for residents at the exclusive Ridge Club neighborhood in the southernmost reaches of town, that has not been the case over the past year or so, and police are at a loss as to how and who has been getting into this area and into the homes of the people who live there. 
     In an attempt to get to the bottom of at least eight unsolved crimes this year alone, members of the Ridge Club Homeowners’ Association, the Sandwich Police Department, and detectives from the Massachusetts State Police will meet Tuesday at the town police station.
     Sandwich Police Chief Michael J. Miller said he hopes Tuesday’s meeting will allow residents and the police to work together to close up any holes in the security system there and to come up with some ideas or leads that will move the investigations forward so the crimes can be solved. 
     In recent months, at least eight homes have been broken into, with thieves making off with thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of valuables, including jewelry, money, prescriptions, and guns.
     In one case, Chief Miller said, the culprits helped themselves to the keys of a homeowner’s Mercedes-Benz that was parked in the driveway. The car later turned up in New Bedford. 
     “There was no damage to the vehicle, and it was clean,” Chief Miller said, referring to any fingerprints that might have been found.
     Even Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael J. O’Keefe was not untouched by the crime spree. According to Chief Miller, the district attorney’s home was burglarized last December.
     Typically, he said, detectives will visit local pawn shops, looking for items that were stolen in home burglaries. When items are recovered, it often leads detectives to a suspect. However, Chief Miller said such investigations have yielded no leads in this high-end crime spree.
     “We’re not recovering any of the jewelry,” he said. The chief explained that many of the items that have been taken are very expensive and some pawn brokers may not even be recording the items when they come in. He explained that there could be some brokers who recognize the value of the items, and they could be removing the diamonds or stones and melting the gold down, causing further dead ends in the investigations.
     He said one of the reasons for the high number of break-ins at The Ridge Club may be due, in part, to a false sense of security that residents in that community feel. He said even though it is gated and the entrance is staffed 24 hours a day, homeowners should still be locking their doors and activating their home alarm systems.
     He said one of the thefts occurred when a woman, who was in the process of moving into a home there, took a break from unpacking to go buy lunch. She had left the home unlocked and jewelry sitting in plain sight. Although police were able to recover a $40,000 necklace that was dropped on a neighbor’s lawn, the homeowner still lost $70,000 worth of jewelry.
     Beyond that, Chief Miller said he has not figured out how the thief or thieves are sneaking off unseen with some of the bulkier items, like the large-screen televisions. “Those are heavy,” said Chief Miller.
     He went on to say that, right now, the police department does not have a firm lead on any one suspect. He said he cannot even say for certain if all the break-ins are related, if one or more thieves are responsible, how the thieves are getting in and out of the community, or even perhaps if they live there. “We have suspects all over the place. It could be somebody who knows someone who knows someone,” the chief said.
     In as much as the Sandwich police will respond to any emergency call there or investigate a crime, Chief Miller said because The Ridge Club is a private community, Sandwich police do not patrol the area on a regular basis.
     “It is the only truly gated, guarded community in Sandwich,” he said.
     The chief said because the property abuts public areas such as Newtown Road, there are some vulnerabilities to the private community and those will be addressed at the meeting on Tuesday.
     Chief Miller said Detective Albert J. Robichaud has been the lead investigator from the Sandwich Police Department on most of the crimes there and said there are even some investigators from the Massachusetts State Police who have been assigned to the cases.