Top 5 in Los Altos Crime: Lock Your Cars, Be Careful on the Road

Los Altos Patch knows you want to know what keeps the police force busy. Every day, the police department sends us its incidents from the day before, and sometimes, from very early in the same morning. We thought we'd share.

Our new feature, "Top Five in Crime," is meant to give you a quick, skeletal look at five incidents we've plucked from the police blotter.

Sometimes we'll find themes, and sometimes incidents will be all bunched in the morning, afternoon or evening. A day that may have plenty of smaller incidents such as 911 hang-ups and requests to check on someone's welfare. This is just a snapshot. We'll do this Monday through Friday, and you'll see the end-of-the-week roundup on Saturday, as usual.

One thought we have: Lock your cars, folks. That's a quick and easy deterrent. We've been seeing a number of thefts from unsecured vehicles, particularly over the weekend.

1. 7:05 a.m. Andover Way; auto burglary, cold report.

2. 8:38 a.m., El Camino Real and San Antonio Road; reckless driver report, referred to Palo Alto police.

3. 8:51 a.m., Homestad Road and Fallen Leaf Lane; dead animal in roadway, referred to animal control.

4. 9:27 a.m., Miramonte Avenue and Covington Road; reckless driver report, unable to locate.

5. 9:40 a.m., El Camino Real and Jordan Avenue; traffic collision, minor injury accident, report taken.