FAIRFIELD TWP. - Summertime, and the stealing is easy. Across the Tristate, suburbanites are having their sense of security shaken by criminals who find the booming suburbs a land of opportunity where homeowners leave garage doors up, doors unlocked, windows open and backyard sheds unwatched.

Jeff Busemeyer looks through a security gate installed at a Pik Kwik in West Chester after two smash-and-grab robberies. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

        Expensive golf clubs, power tools and lawn mowers are among the booty, along with pocketbooks, CD players, cash and the like.

        “It's unbelievable. It's huge,” Bob Chow, 52, of Liberty Township said of the local crime wave. His golf clubs recently were swiped from his open garage, along with his wife's set of golf woods 1/2ndash 3/4 a $6,055 loss.

        “I have grown up that you could leave your garage door open and your doors unlocked. But nowhere is safe anymore. You go out in your yard and work and have to worry about someone stealing your property in your garage. It's sad.”

        Fairfield, Green, West Chester and Liberty townships have had the worst problems this summer with garage thefts, but police in Mason, Blue Ash and Fairfield also are seeing them.

        Two men, Steven Vincent Hymer, 23, of Liberty Township and Kevin Matt Tallon, 19, of Reading, are suspected of being the culprits several police agencies have dubbed “The Golf Club Bandits.”

Steven Vincent Hymer and Kevin Matt Tallon are suspected of being 'The Golf Club Bandits'

        The duo often were high on cocaine when they scouted neighborhoods for open garages in Mr. Hymer's mother's black Honda Civic, according to police and police records.

        They were arrested in July for one robbery each in Liberty Township and released from the Butler County Jail on their own recognizance. But they were arrested again last week for three robberies in Fairfield Township.

        Both turned themselves into police; Mr. Hymer is free on $45,000 bond and Mr. Tallon is confined with bond set at $45,000. The men are scheduled to appear in Butler County's Area II Court this Wednesday.

        West Chester police suspect the two were involved in at least one of their incidents.

Open doors in summer

        Garage thefts rise when warmer weather hits, police say, because neighbors are more likely to leave their garages open, revealing thousands of dollars in items.

        Other break-ins are occurring through unlocked garage windows or side garage doors, and bolts have been snapped off shed locks and shed roofs have been pried open, records show.

        An Enquirer review of police reports filed in suburban areas in Hamilton, Butler and Warren counties found 54 garage or shed thefts this spring and summer in those three counties alone.

        Besides stealing golf clubs, tools, fishing gear, pressure washers and lawn equipment, thieves delve into unlocked cars and take stereos, CDs and spare change.

        Police in Northern Kentucky said they are not having a major problem with garage and shed thefts, although they have occurred in the past, said Lt. Tony Trimble of the Boone County Sheriff Department.

        The garage thefts underscore the ripeness for crimes of opportunity in the suburbs, where people believe they have escaped city crime problems. Just because neighbors live on cul-de-sacs and are miles away from city limits, they remain susceptible to crime, police warn.

        “I'm not suggesting we board up our windows and put bars in our windows and be afraid to go out,” West Chester Police Chief Bruce said.

        “But people need to take reasonable steps and close their garage doors and not leave valuables in cars or plain view.”

Other targets

        Other suburban crime waves this summer have included smash-and-grab business robberies, thefts from subdivision construction sites, and purse snatchings from unlocked, running vehicles outside daycares while mothers are dropping children off. Meanwhile, in Colerain Township, police are staking out a neighborhood that holds four apartment complexes to curb a series of break-ins and car thefts.

        Dozens of cars have been vandalized or stolen this spring and summer, according to Colerain Township police.

        Plainclothes officers in unmarked cars and uniformed officers in foot patrols and bikes have been blanketing the area of Regal Lane and Sovereign Drive between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., Colerain Township Police Sgt. Dan Meloy said. Between April 1 and June 30, thieves and vandals have wracked up $10,000 in stolen items and damages, he said.

"The Golf Club Bandits'

        The garage and shed burglaries in particular are lucrative takes. Out of the 54 suburban garage and shed thefts in Butler, Warren and Hamilton counties, nearly $55,000 worth of items was stolen, according to police incident reports.

        One Blue Ash garage theft amounted to $5,500 when someone ripped off a single hydrostatic mower.

        By comparison, most bank robberies net $3,000 cash or less, according to the FBI.

        “These sets of golf clubs are quite expensive,” Fairfield Township Officer Gary Welsh said. “One set of clubs, you're talking $2,000 to $3,000. They sell them for $299. That's drug money for them. That's free money to them.”

        One of the alleged “golf club bandits,” Mr. Tallon, has confessed to one Fairfield Township burglary, according to a police witness affidavit.

        Mr. Hymer did not return a call for comment and Mr. Tallon declined comment Thursday as he was taken into custody at Fairfield Township police headquarters.

        But in a July 23 affidavit about a June 23 burglary, Mr. Tallon wrote: “I 1/2hellip 3/4 grabbed a driver and waited for Steve to get what he was going to take. We then went back to his car and left the scene.”

        Mr. Tallon also told Officer Welsh he and Mr. Hymer stole the golf clubs to support their cocaine use, the officer said.

        “They were so high on coke they don't remember going in some of these neighborhoods,” Officer Welsh said.

How one store helped

        Police say they've gotten leads from Play It Again Sports, a new-and-used sporting goods chain, whose clerks question those who come in trying to sell golf clubs and skis, and other expensive items.

        They also require customers to produce their driver's licenses for copying and record their phone numbers. Then, each item they sell to the store is meticulously inventoried with the seller's information.

        “I don't want people to think we are there to buy things from thieves because we are not,” said John McGregor, who owns and operates three of the stores. “We don't know when somebody walks in whether they have stolen something or not. But they have to produce a driver's license and, amazingly, at times the thieves still will give us their driver's license and then they're dead, because we have everything on them. And the police can nab them pretty easily.”

        Most of the store's customers are honest and are selling items they no longer use or want to trade for newer versions, he said. But there have been exceptions.

        “This last one was pretty big,” he said. “I'm happy to hear they nailed the guys. Golf clubs do not have serial numbers. That would certainly help.”

Neighbors keep watch

        As the suburbs' population booms and rows of tidy homes seemingly blossom overnight, many neighbors lack close ties. Many homeowners work all day, run their children to and from activities at night and do not have time to get to know each other.

        In response to crime, citizens increasingly are forming with police neighborhood watch groups.

        Unlike inner-city neighborhood watch groups, where residents fed up with open-air drug dealing hit the streets with flashlights, suburban groups are more low-key.

        They peer out their windows at strange cars, call one another when something doesn't seem right, and gather for cul-de-sac block parties to get to know each other. One group even meets once a month for hour-long education sessions. A recent meeting covered gang indicators and the types of drugs teens frequently use.

        “You don't think about a small bedroom community being exposed to gangs, but we are in between Dayton and Cincinnati and it could happen here,” said Donna Bowman, president of the City of Monroe/Lemon Township Neighborhood Watch Association.

        “I think a lot of people don't want to be bothered and are taking for granted that they are in this area and it can't happen here, but it can happen anywhere,” she said. “Just because we are out of the city environment, that doesn't mean we don't have to be aware. We have to keep on our toes at all times.”

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