David Bergeron has had several break-ins at his Nob Hill home — the most recent of which was on Jan. 18. 

“I woke up about 3 a.m. and noticed that the back door to our garage was open — we never leave it open at night,” he said. 

He went out to investigate and noticed that a dolly and a bucket of tools that he kept on his porch were missing. Then, he said, he went into his garage and discovered that multiple hand tools, mostly drills and batteries, were gone. 

“I immediately called the nonemergency (police) number — because there wasn’t anybody there — and reported it,” he said. 

He gave APD an itemized statement of what was missing. A police report obtained by City Desk ABQ lists 15 tools worth a total of more than $2,100.

Since then, Bergeron said he hasn’t heard anything from them. 

This is not an uncommon experience for property crime victims in the city. 

For the past couple of years, the Albuquerque Police Department has solved only about 8% or 9% of property crimes, according to numbers provided in the mayor’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2025. That includes robbery, bribery and burglary. 

Franchesca Perdue, an APD spokesperson, said property crime clearance rates are generally low because there are usually no witnesses or offender information after the crime has been committed. 

“The most common way to overcome this is the use of surveillance videos, better lighting, and neighbors working together to report suspicious activity,” she said. 

Perdue said APD’s goal is to more than double the clearance rate for these crimes. The proposed budget sets a goal to clear 20% of property crimes. The department had the same goal last year but fell far short.

“There is increased lab personnel to assist in processing evidence such as fingerprints and the number of crime scene specialists is the highest it’s been at the department,” she said. “The hope is that more evidence will be gathered and processed, which will lead to more cases being solved and a higher clearance rate.”

An unhappy New Year

On New Year’s Eve, Gordon Bronitsky, who lives in East Downtown, was having dinner with friends. 

When he returned home, Bronitsky said he was stunned to find the silver and turquoise jewelry he’d spent a lifetime collecting had been plundered, including a silver belt buckle that his mother made him for his bar mitzvah in 1963.

When Bronitsky discovered what happened, he said he felt disgusted and outraged at first but was able to calm down enough to file an online police report that night. For two days, he heard nothing back from the police, so he called APD who told him they could come out in five or six days. 

“What is the point?” he said.

Bronitsky said APD did send a fingerprint technician out to dust for prints, but it’s been nearly six months since the burglary and he still hasn’t been visited or called by the police. City Desk ABQ was not able to obtain a police report in this case.

“Even if I could say, well, they came the next day and didn’t find anything, I’d have really appreciated that, as opposed to I never saw them. Big difference there,” he said. 

Since the burglary, Bronitsky said he leaves his alarm on at all times — if he’s in his house or if he is not  — and he is more aware of his surroundings. 

Since 1963, Bronitsky has worn that belt buckle for all of the special occasions in his life: for holidays, funerals, his children’s bar mitzvahs, and their weddings. 

“You know, the Jewish High Holidays are coming up. I knew I would wear that belt buckle,” Bronitsky said. “That’s just what one did, and I can’t do that anymore. It sucks. That to me, that’s the worst part of this crime.” 

Dream home destroyed 

Thalia Papadakis was excited. She’d just purchased her first home — fulfilling a life-long dream — and was looking forward to moving into her house as soon as some repairs were finished in 2022.

“It had a loft inside. I always wanted a loft. Even when I was a kid —          I was a really nerdy kid — I would draw pictures of the type of house I wanted and it always had a loft,” she said. “It was pretty adorable.” 

But the excitement turned to fear and anxiety just six days after closing. That day, Papadakis was with her contractors when they opened the garage door. 

What they saw stunned them. 

Papadakis said her walls had been demolished for copper piping and it looked like the people who broke into her new home also tried to take the water heater. Damages to the pipes caused her dream home to flood. 

“I couldn’t comprehend what had happened. Like I was just standing there trying to process what I was seeing and it was the contractors who flipped out and made me realize what it was,” she said. 

Industrial fans had to be brought in to dry out her house for a week and everything had to be pulled up. The drywall was ripped off and replaced. 

“I didn’t realize at the time how much damage flooding does, but that was the biggest thing,” she said. 

She installed security cameras and bars to her windows, but it still took her months after the break-in to feel safe in her dream house. 

She said APD came to the scene, dusted for prints, and took DNA samples, but no one has been arrested. City Desk ABQ could not obtain a police report for the case.

The break-in delayed Papadakis’ move-in date because the damage needed to be repaired. It took her a long time to feel completely safe in her house, even with the installation of security cameras throughout the property and bars on her windows. Papadakis said she will always have security cameras no matter where she lives.  

Considering a cross-country move 

As for Bergeron, two nights after he reported the January burglary, he said he was awoken yet again to see his garage door open and $700 worth of tools had been stolen. 

This time he went to his front yard and saw a man riding a bicycle down the street, but he wasn’t able to get a good description because it was dark outside. 

Bergeron’s family, who has lived in their house for 31 years, has been victimized multiple times, he said. 

They’ve had a $750 mountain bike stolen, an F-350 vehicle stolen from the front of their house and three years ago they had a 14-by-7 cargo trailer that had all of their company’s inventory in it stolen from their front yard. 

“We’ve gotten to the point where we’re seriously considering the move out of state. You know things have progressively gotten worse and worse,” he said.