ANAHEIM – An apparent uptick in vandalism and trespassing near Angel Stadium has prompted team officials to ask for a stronger law enforcement presence in the area and led to increased police patrols ahead of the Angels’ baseball home opener next month.

Among the recent worrisome incidents, according to team and county officials: A man stole a nearby bulldozer for a 40-minute joyride around the parking lot, and another person tried to hot-wire the electrical system for the 230-foot-tall “Big A” sign, possibly in an effort to charge a cell phone.

“We’re really lucky people didn’t get hurt,” Angels spokeswoman Marie Garvey said this week. “We’re working with the city to increase security, and our focus is to make sure no one is injured and to protect the stadium property.”

While it’s unclear whether the perpetrators of the bulldozer and “Big A” incidents were caught or identified, the mischief coincides with an influx of scores of homeless people recently displaced by a county works project and forced to move their encampment to the stadium side of the Santa Ana river bed.

That prompted Angels management to ask Anaheim officials for more police and to meet with county officials to voice concerns about the encampment. The team also has bolstered their own security around the stadium.

Police spokesman Sgt. Daron Wyatt said that the department in response has increased operations around the stadium of its community-policing and homeless-outreach teams, which will arrest homeless people who commit crimes and refer others to nonprofits groups and public services that can aid them.

“They just want to understand what’s going on,” County Supervisor Shawn Nelson said. “This guy on a bulldozer, you could have had mayhem. And apparently the voltage on the ‘Big A’ is so high that you have to have a special certification just to get inside the fence. This guy could have been fried.”

Angels officials also say they’re worried about the open fires homeless people often start in close proximity to propane tanks stored on stadium property.

The river bed’s homeless population has experienced a turbulent month after county workers displaced a large encampment on the river’s east bank, forcing people to relocate their tents and makeshift shelters so that OC Public Works could stockpile boulders and sand for flood control purposes.

Homeless advocates sued the county in response, resulting in the move being slightly delayed and a judge saying the county couldn’t seize homeless people’s property without giving 24-hour notice.

Eve Garrow, homelessness policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Orange County office, was critical of the county’s actions, saying that homeless people previously had been told by local law enforcement to relocate to the river bed. She said their recent displacement repeated a cycle of local governments shuffling the homeless from one location to another, leaving them no place to live without being harassed.

County representatives say workers didn’t tell homeless people where to go when forcing them to leave. But the homeless overwhelmingly moved their belongings to the west bank of the river, along a well-traveled bike path next to Angel Stadium.

Several homeless people interviewed Wednesday near the stadium on the riverbank said that they haven’t noticed any increased police enforcement in recent weeks. But many also said they feared that the Angels or Anaheim or the county would soon tire of their newly relocated encampment and once again force them to move.

“Whenever I see someone messing with the fence (that separates the stadium from the riverbank), I tell them to stop because it makes us look bad, and then they’ll make us move again,” said Ashley Foster, 22, a homeless woman who lives in the shadow of the Big A after moving there last month from the river’s east side.

Garvey said the Angels have not asked Anaheim or the county to further displace the homeless encampment.

Anaheim spokesman Mike Lyster said the city was working with the Angels “to address trespassing” in an approach that “balances compassion with public safety.” On Wednesday evening, an Anaheim police patrol car was parked directly beneath the “Big A” sign.

Cyclists riding along the river’s bike path have also begun to complain about the homeless encampment’s new location, Nelson said.

On Wednesday, Mike and Teri Alderete, both 61, of Anaheim Hills, took a break from cycling and swigged water on a nearby side street. The couple said they no longer stop along the bike path after a homeless man blocking the trail recently threatened them, causing Mike to call 911. Teri said she feels compassion for the homeless but said they should be asked to move back to the other side of the river.

The county plans to open its second year-round homeless shelter late next month at 1000 N. Kraemer Place in Anaheim. The facility is under renovation but will open early to get people off the street sooner. It is expected to shelter 100 people when it opens, focusing on quickly finding them permanent housing.

Contact the writer: jgraham@scng.com or 714-796-7960