SEAL BEACH : Watchful Residents Protect Streets

Whenever Lynn Phipps hears a car engine start outside her 10th Street home, her gut reaction is to run to the window.

Since January, car thieves have broken into three cars parked in front of her house and stolen two of them.

All three belonged to family friends.

After reports of vandalism, thefts and muggings on her street during the past year, residents have had enough and are banding together to form a Neighborhood Watch committee, she said.

“The whole neighborhood is mad as heck and we’re out for blood,” said Phipps, 57, a bank employee who was born and raised in Seal Beach.

“There’s even some talk of forming a vigilante committee, but I don’t think it will come to that.”

The car thefts began in January after years of property thefts from her ex-husband’s truck, which was parked routinely outside the family home on the 300 block of 10th Street.

In January, someone attempted to steal a Toyota truck belonging to a friend visiting her son. The thief was scared off.

In June, a different Toyota truck belonging to her son’s girlfriend was stolen from outside her home.

Police recovered the vehicle a week later in Compton.

“There was nothing left but a frame,” Phipps said.

On Sept. 17, a meticulously customized 1986 Chevy Monte Carlo, which belonged to a friend visiting her, was stolen from outside her home.

All three incidents happened on Saturday nights between midnight and 2 a.m.

Police say the street is vulnerable to crime because of easy access from Pacific Coast Highway. Meanwhile, Phipps is passing out flyers to enlist more 10th Street residents to join the fledgling Neighborhood Watch committee.

“I’m afraid to have people come and visit me,” she said. “I’m going to tell them the only safe place to park is on my roof.”