LAPD ramps up police presence at Smith’s. Photo by Bonnie J. Gordon/ladailypost.com

The Los Alamos Police Department has ramped up its uniformed and plain clothes police presence in the vicinity of Smith’s Marketplace following two unrelated incidents in the past week.

Cmdr. Preston Ballew said Wednesday that the community will notice additional police presence during both day and evening hours.

The first incident happened Friday night when two men, Joel Martin and Stephen Montano each stole more than $250 in alcoholic beverages at Smith’s and fled the scene in a stolen truck. (See separate story)

The second incident, which occurred around 9 p.m. Sunday involved the robbery of a local woman in her car in the Smith’s parking lot. The victim told police a Hispanic male reached into her vehicle and removed her purse.

The Los Alamos Daily Post has learned that another local woman was putting groceries into her car at 8:30 p.m. when a vehicle rapidly approached from the Knecht Street side of the parking lot and parked right next to her car, even though there was plenty of other parking space at the time. Fortunately the victim was not physically injured.

The woman said a Hispanic man in his early 20s got out of the vehicle, approached her and told her to give him her purse. She said she told him, “No, go away,” twice before he left.

“I had thrown my purse in the back seat and there is no doubt in my mind that if it had been in the cart or on my shoulder, he would have taken it,” she said.

The woman said surprisingly she did not feel scared at the time but felt more offended than anything else. She said she couldn’t believe someone would think it was worth it to ruin their whole life by “taking a purse from an old lady”. She said there were two people in the truck and that the one who approached her was the passenger.

“It is very easy to second guess what I should have done after the fact, but it all happened so fast,” she said.

According to police records, there have been seven shoplifting cases and one robbery at Smith’s Marketplace in the last 30 days. Cmdr. Ballew said while the number of shoplifting cases is more than the Department wants to see, it is not cause for concern. He said LAPD’s Community Liaison Unit has met with Smith’s management to discuss the issue.

Ballew said video from the robbery is being analyzed and the Department is anticipating future arrests.

Smith’s manager Cindy Doty said the store is fully active in making the parking lot as safe as possible for shoppers.

“There is nothing more important than the safety of our customers and our associates,” she said. “We are very thankful that we can call the Los Alamos Police Department and an officer will respond within minutes.”

Doty said she was made aware on Monday that some of the lights in the parking lot are not operating and that she made immediate arrangements to have them repaired, however, some of the work is underground.

On May 12, a local woman in her 80s was followed home from Smith’s in broad daylight and beaten and robbed in her driveway. To date, no one has been arrested for that incident.

Anyone with any information pertaining to any of the three incidents should call LAPD Dispatch at 505.662-8222 or Crime Stoppers at 505.662.8282.