BANK KILLING UNNERVES THOUSAND OAKS : NO ESCAPE FROM FEAR.Byline: Eric Wahlgren Daily News Staff Writer Tillie Rosenberg loved the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. . She loved raising her family there. It was that nagging fear of crime that the 79-year-old retired insurance company employee loathed. So in 1994, Rosenberg finally decided to trade her life in a place rich with her fondest memories for a destination ranked No. 1 in safety among U.S. cities by the FBI: Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. . But last week's fatal shooting of teller Monica Lynne Leech leech, predacious or parasitic annelid worm of the class Hirudinea, characterized by a cylindrical or slightly flattened body with suckers at either end for attaching to prey. during a robbery at the Western Financial Bank has served as a sobering reminder to Rosenberg and others that fear and violent crime know no city limits. Even at her condominium condominium In modern property law, individual ownership of one dwelling unit within a multidwelling building. Unit owners have undivided ownership interest in the land and those portions of the building shared in common. complex, with its security gate and residents quick to report any suspicious activity, Rosenberg doesn't feel entirely safe. ``It has security, not as much as you would like to have, but I keep my door closed,'' she said one afternoon last week. If anyone should feel at ease, it would be Frank Redlich, who lives in what is arguably ar·gu·a·ble adj. 1. Open to argument: an arguable question, still unresolved. 2. That can be argued plausibly; defensible in argument: three arguable points of law. the safest neighborhood within the safest city in America. To reach Westlake Island, visitors must first stop at a security checkpoint before crossing a bridge to where the exclusive residences are located. But Redlich also said he knows he can never be totally insulated in·su·late tr.v. in·su·lat·ed, in·su·lat·ing, in·su·lates 1. To cause to be in a detached or isolated position. See Synonyms at isolate. 2. from crime, even in a water-bound hamlet. ``To think that you live in Ventura County and can get away from it is naive,'' said Redlich, retired owner of a hardware store chain. ``People who live here don't think any less about the violence in the area than anyone else. It just happens.'' And last week, it did just happen, and just two miles from his house. Two masked gunmen burst into Western Financial, herded the employees into the vault, collected the money and then shot a teller to death as she knelt. The slaying of Leech might well have been an isolated instance of brutality, a fluke fluke, parasitic flatworm of the trematoda class, related to the tapeworm. Instead of the cilia, external sense organs, and epidermis of the free-living flatworms, adult flukes have sucking disks with which they cling to their hosts and an external cuticle that in a city where there was not one murder in 1995 and only three in 1996. Compared to Thousand Oaks' safest-city rating, the city of Los Angeles
``T.O.,'' as locals call it, looks pretty safe by virtually any comparison. Even Western Financial Bank itself decided a security guard wasn't necessary, in part because Thousand Oaks just hasn't been a magnet for bank robberies The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. Bank robbery is the crime of robbing a bank. , with only 11 in 1996. ``I think that was a variable that factored into the decision, the fact that Thousand Oaks had a very low level of crime,'' said Mike Johnson, executive vice present of administration for the bank. A guard has since been posted. It takes only one crime to make everyone, not just the victims, change their perception of safety. ``People tend to think that crime affects one specific family, but it really has a strong rippling effect rippling effect Imaging A descriptor for the layered angiographic appearance of blood vessels in the cortical sulci peripheral to a cerebral abscess through which the blood flows in an undulating pattern; other cerebral lesions differ as they may be associated with ,'' said Debbie O'Neill, director of victim services for the Ventura County District Attorney's Office. ``Most of us can identify with this victim. It really could have been one of us.'' Just ask Cindy, a 40-year-old mother of two. The Thousand Oaks woman was sitting in her living room one November 1995 afternoon when a carload carload In commodities trading, a railroad car or truckload of grain that ranges from 1,400 to 2,500 bushels. of what police say were gang members riddled her home with bullets. Although Cindy and her teen-age son were not hit, bullets whizzed by only a few inches from their heads. ``I didn't feel safe in my own living room anymore,'' said the executive secretary. It was enough to convince Cindy to ask that her name be withheld because she fears retaliation RETALIATION. The act by which a nation or individual treats another in the same manner that the latter has treated them. For example, if a nation should lay a very heavy tariff on American goods, the United States would be justified in return in laying heavy duties on the manufactures and . It also was enough to convince her to move from Ventura County to a rural community in Los Angeles County. ``I think that everybody has a very false sense of security in Thousand Oaks,'' she said. ``Yes, I think it is better than most areas. But it is not the safest place.'' For Cindy, moving was the answer to easing her fears of crime. For others, counseling, therapy and a sharing of feelings are a beginning. ``Letting time pass also helps,'' said Debra Beckel, a therapist in Ventura who mainly counsels victims of domestic abuse and violent crimes. Cindy said time has erased some of her fear, but now she realizes that some circumstances just cannot be controlled, no matter how many precautions are taken. And that is downright scary, she says. ``I don't think you ever get over it,'' she said. ``It is something that is always in your mind. Once you think it is over, something comes along and reminds you of the incident when you least expect it.'' During such a crime's aftermath, adult residents can slip into a heightened state of alert, leading them to recheck locked doors, peer frequently into rearview mirrors and take other precautions, O'Neill said. ``There is a real sense of a loss of security,'' she said. ``People feel very vulnerable and very violated. It is not uncommon for some to not want to leave the house.'' Eleanor Lombard, a Thousand Oaks pension administrator, said that since the slaying she has considered avoiding banks altogether by using automated teller machines automated teller machine (ATM), device used by bank customers to process account transactions. Typically, a user inserts into the ATM a special plastic card that is encoded with information on a magnetic strip. in supermarkets. ``It would be for safety reasons - in case anybody comes into a bank to rob it,'' said the 25-year Thousand Oaks resident. But Alex Fiore, a former Thousand Oaks mayor who served on the City Council for more than 30 years, called the slaying an isolated incident that won't dull the city's luster as a low-crime haven. ``I don't think it will discount the safety of Thousand Oaks,'' said Fiore, who believes the criminals were drive-through robbers from outside Thousand Oaks. ``We are not saying that we are the safest city in the country because we don't have any incidents of crime. We have a lot of incidents of crime. We just have a lot less than other cities.'' Sure, the fatal robbery has taken more than money; it stole from residents the notion that brutal crimes don't happen here. But some dismiss the slaying as an anomaly, saying the city remains a safe place to live. Bob Benedetto, a clinical social worker who counsels crime victims, predicts that Thousand Oaks swiftly will regain a feeling of normalcy nor·mal·cy n. Normality. Noun 1. normalcy - being within certain limits that define the range of normal functioning normality . ``If you have one event like this in a community that has a history of being safe, people will make the connection that it is safe,'' said Benedetto, chief of forensic services for Ventura County's Behavioral Health Behavioral health was first used in the 1980's to name the combination of the fields mental health and substance abuse. As an example, an organization serving both mental health and substance abuse clients might refer to its practice as behavioral health or Department. ``I think it will come back very quickly.'' Take Petaluma, the bucolic Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern city where 12-year-old Polly Klaas was kidnapped from her home and killed. Three years later, children have less trouble sleeping and parents are less wary about leaving their homes, said Julie Grosse, managing director of the Polly Klaas Foundation The Polly Klaas Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity organization devoted to preventing crimes against children, assisting in the recovery of missing children, and lobbying for legislative assistance. The foundation was formed October 23, 1993 to search for Polly Klaas. . ``It took awhile,'' Grosse said. ``I think we feel pretty safe. We felt like we had to make our community a little safer - and we just moved on.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (color) Former Valley resident Tillie Rosenberg, 79, of Thousand Oaks doesn't feel completely safe after the fatal bank robbery. Evan Yee/Daily News |
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