Killington Police Chief: Three Break-Ins On Alpine Drive

Vermont Standard
By Curt Peterson

Standard Correspondent

Killington Police Chief Whit Montgomery reported to the select board there were three break-ins in town earlier this month, so he wants to put residents on alert. All three affected houses are on Alpine Drive.

“I think I may have interrupted one of them,” Chief Montgomery said. “When I pulled into the driveway there were six pairs of skis on the ground but the thief had disappeared.”

He said two snowboards and a flat-screen TV were successfully stolen from the residence.

Montgomery advises residents who are going to leave their houses unoccupied between seasons to install deadbolt locks, automatic timers on their household lights, to have someone do frequent security checks, install alarm systems and outside lighting.

“I’m going to try to get the neighborhood watch group active again,” he said. “It’s very effective, but then when there aren’t any more break-ins people lose interest and stop being vigilant. The effectiveness increases when the crime rate is high, and decreases when it’s low.”

After the select board meeting Montgomery said the period after ski season is over is referred to as “break-in season” because so many homes in town are left unoccupied between April and November.

“The worst year for break-ins was about seven years ago,” he said. “We had about 20 incidents that summer, all around one neighborhood.”

He said the department tried everything they could think of to catch the perpetrators.

“I took my own personal pickup truck and staked out the area all night long — nothing! We couldn’t figure out what was going on.”

It turned out the burglars were members of a construction crew who were working in the neighborhood. They spent their lunch hours burglarizing empty houses in broad daylight while the police were trying to catch them at night.

“While they were working they could easily see which houses had no activity day after day, so they knew which ones to hit,” Montgomery said.

According to disastercenter.com there were 2,034 reported burglaries in Vermont in 2014. In numbers of burglaries per 100,000 residents, Vermont ranks 46 among the 50 states. The recent year with the highest number of break-ins was 2012 with 4,179 statewide.

Asked what factor he thought contributed most to an increasing or decreasing number of burglaries in town, Montgomery said, “Who is in and out of jail at the time.”

New Town Manager Deb Schwartz asked Montgomery to respond when Ely Kirschner, who introduced himself as a “fairly new resident,” inquired about the intersection of Killington Road and U. S. Route 4, which he considers very dangerous.

“I’m sure you’ve all discussed this before,” Kirschner said, “but I’m wondering if something shouldn’t be done.”

Traffic is required to stop on Killington Road before entering the highway, which Chief Montgomery agreed could be tricky, especially since Route 4 drivers can’t see the intersection until they are very close to it, and they are often driving much faster than the 40 miles per hour limit.

Select board chair Patty McGrath said strict enforcement of the speed limit would do much to improve safety at the site. Montgomery suggested later that a permanently installed speed indicator sign might be a solution.

“Those signs really slow people down,” he said. “Drivers on 4 often don’t realize how fast they’re going and the sign wakes them up.”

Other suggestions from the chief of police include installing a permanent island to show drivers turning onto Killington Road from Rte. 4 where to go, which would prevent many near-misses caused by people cutting across the Rte. 4 access lanes, particularly when snow covers the painted traffic lines.

“A flashing caution light would be another possibility,” he said.

He calculates many of the drivers have also come from other states and may be fatigued from being on the road for several hours already.

“There actually haven’t been a lot of accidents at the intersection,” Montgomery said. “But I’ve seen a lot of close calls.”

There was one crash at the site this winter in which there were minor injuries.

According to VTrans’ list of dangerous intersections this one doesn’t qualify. Statewide, Vermont State Police records say there were 6 fatal accidents in 2015 in which 9 people were killed, and in 2016 there have already been 15 fatal crashes that have cost 17 lives.

McGrath told Kirschner there wasn’t much the town could do about the intersection because Route 4 is a federal highway that is maintained by the state. Apparently Killington has requested a traffic signal in the past, but the state deemed it unwarranted. She said she would mention Kirschner’s complaint to David Rosenblum, who represents Killington at the Regional Highway Commission.