Aimee Green | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Non-residential burglaries in Portland are up nearly 25 percent in one year, according to police data.





By AIMEE GREEN

The Oregonian | OregonLive



Business break-ins have become so prolific in Portland that police resorted to circling their small airplane over the city in the middle of the night last summer in hopes of catching a burglar red-handed. They weren't disappointed.



At 4:35 a.m. June 22, two officers in the plane radioed officers below. Someone had hit six businesses that night in the Alberta Arts and Mississippi Avenue districts. They had two teenagers in their sights.



With the help of a heat-detecting, night vision camera on the plane, officers and a dog on the ground chased the teens as they leapt over fences, dashed through backyards and hid under a staircase.



One of the suspects just pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal.



A wave of commercial burglaries has hit Portland hard, likely fueled by the daily heroin and methamphetamine habits of addicts and the raging opioid epidemic.

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Non-residential burglaries jumped nearly 25 percent from 2016 to 2017, Police Bureau statistics show. Last year, burglars targeted almost 2,000 restaurants, offices, schools, storage units, food carts, detached garages, backyard sheds and other buildings.



Home burglaries also are up, but only slightly, at about 4 percent.



Some smaller cities in the metro area also report an increase in commercial burglaries -- 5 percent in Gresham and 35 percent in Beaverton, for example -- but they don't compare to the volume of the problem in Portland.



Beaverton, for instance, logged 58 commercial burglaries last year, compared to 43 the year before, with one repeat burglar making a big difference. Cody Runyon, 30, was responsible for at least half of the city's increase, investigators said.

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This graphic shows the steep increase in non-residential burglaries in Portland from 2016 to 2017. The year 2015 shows only seven months of data, because that's all that was available. Data from 2018 shows only the first two months of the year. (Source: Portland Police Bureau / Graphic by Mark Graves: The Oregonian)







And that's a common occurrence: Burglars often strike again and again, adding to the increased numbers.



Many criminals find it less risky to target businesses overnight because they know people won't be around, said Sgt. Chris Burley, a Portland police spokesman. At homes, even in the middle of the day when many people are at work, there's a greater chance that someone might be inside.



Burglarizing a home also comes with stiffer penalties -- and prosecutors suspect that the lawbreakers know that.



For someone with no previous criminal record, Oregon sentencing guidelines call for a two-year prison sentence on a defendant's second home burglary conviction. That's if no one was home. A break-in of an occupied home carries a recommended 1 ½-year sentence for a first conviction.



Burglarizing a business, in contrast, could get someone 1 ½ years on the third conviction.

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The burglars are as brazen as ever.



In the burglary spree that brought out the police airplane, investigators had noticed the same game plan again and again.



"Rock through window, someone grabbing the till and running out," said North Precinct Officer Michael Schmerber.



"It was occurring daily," Schmerber said. "We wanted to try to find them quickly because they were going to keep on doing this until they were caught."



In another recent case, a judge sentenced 43-year-old Daryl William Johnson to two years and two months in prison after he was caught in December crawling through a human-sized hole he'd cut in the wall of a T-Mobile store on Burnside Street.

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Daryl William Johnson (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office)







Johnson probably thought he could avoid setting off the store's alarm that way, investigators said. He learned he hadn't when police arrived minutes later. It was Johnson's sixth burglary conviction.



This week, another thief -- Benjamin Ian Mason, 20 -- was sentenced to two years in prison after twice targeting Mi Pueblo Taqueria in Gresham. He also plundered three other businesses and Oliver Elementary School in Southeast Portland, police said, and committed unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

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Benjamin Ian Mason (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office)





Mason finally was caught after the owner of Mi Pueblo set up an after-hours stakeout.



Last Nov. 26, one of the owner's friends was sitting in his truck watching the restaurant from a nearby vantage point when he spotted Mason breaking in through the taqueria's drive-through window at 2:30 a.m., according to court records. The friend drove his truck right next to the drive-through, trapping Mason inside.



Desperate to escape, the young man threw a cash register through a large window, causing $1,800 in damage. The friend was able to grab Mason and hold him down until police arrived.



Leaving a mess behind also is typical of many burglars.



Workers at a Gresham coffee shop reported that they had to clean up blood spatters and sanitize the entire business after a clumsy intruder cut himself breaking in last November.



Binks bar on Northeast Alberta was one of the businesses struck by the two teenagers spotted by the police airplane.



They left with nothing of value that night but stuck the bar with sweeping up hundreds of bits of shattered glass. Binks owner Justin Youngers said he had to foot an $850 bill to repair his broken door.

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(Michelle Nicolosi/The Oregonian)







The crime was particularly irritating because the bar leaves its empty cash register drawer open overnight, a signal that targeting the business isn't worth a burglar's time, Youngers said. The cash register can be seen through the windows, he said.



Youngers was impressed to learn that police had used their plane to help snag the suspects.



"Cops catching these bad guys using all the tools they have, that's awesome," he said.



Police arrested Alec Johnson, then 19, and a 16-year-old accomplice that night.

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Johnson pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree burglary and one count of second-degree criminal mischief. The younger teen was found responsible for five of the burglaries and was sentenced to one of the state's youth correctional facilities. He could be under the Oregon Youth Authority's watch until he turns 25.



At Johnson's sentencing two weeks ago, Deputy District Attorney Kevin Demer underscored the frustrations of business owners.



"All of these are small, locally owned businesses," Demer told a judge. "It's somewhat traumatic. ...The glass doors are broken. It makes people feel unsafe when they go to their local coffee shop and they see plywood over the windows. (They think) 'Maybe this isn't a safe place to have a cup of coffee.'"



Although Johnson faced 1 ½ years in prison, the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office made him a generous offer: 45 days in jail and three years of probation.

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Defendant Alec Ryan Johnson (left) goes over paperwork with his defense attorney, Tori Anderson, at his plea and sentencing hearing on April 4, 2018, in Multnomah County Circuit Court. (Aimee Green/The Oregonian)







Demer said he took into consideration Johnson's lack of criminal history after he turned 18 and the fact that all of the burglaries happened in a one-night binge.



Johnson, now 20, also is young, the prosecutor noted.



He now must take part in the Multnomah County Justice Reinvestment Program, designed to keep defendants out of jail or prison and connect them with drug treatment, housing and other necessities to help stabilize their lives.



Circuit Judge Eric Bloch told Johnson that he needs to make a decision about the life he wants: "a criminal career that will bring to you a lot of time in and out of jail and prison" or a law-abiding "life of happiness, health and productivity."



Before a sheriff's deputy walked Johnson to jail, the prosecutor pulled a chair next to him and urged him not to squander this chance.



"You know you got a deal, right?" Demer asked.



"Right," Johnson said, nodding.



"I want this program to work," Demer said. "I would love to have a success story."

Mark Graves of The Oregonian contributed to this story.