When Janice Davis visits old friends in her former south Scottsdale neighborhood, where she lived for 47 years, she is reminded of how much she misses her neighbors.

But she doesn't miss much else.

The widow moved to a patio home in Mesa, in part, to get away from what she describes as a declining area.

Click on graphic for a detailed 2007 burglaries map

Davis' three-bedroom, 1960s-era home near Miller Road and McKinley Street in the Los Arcos neighborhood was burglarized three times over the last two decades, most recently in February 2007, she said.

Burglaries in her former neighborhood and others nearby bear out citywide statistics showing most break-ins take place south of Shea Boulevard.

Though about 44 percent of the city's population resides south of Shea, about 63 percent of the burglaries take place there, according to the Scottsdale Police Department and city demographic reports.

John Anderson, who has lived in his family's home in the 7500 block of East Beatrice Street in the Los Arcos neighborhood since 1976, soon will be moving, too. He recently sold his house and plans to move to a smaller apartment at Camelback and Hayden roads.

Davis and Anderson, now both retired, were mainstays of the Los Arcos Neighborhood Association, and both were vigilant about being watchful of neighbors' homes, looking out for suspicious activity or spotting people who don't belong in the alleys. Now, they fear apathy has taken over, and they aren't sure who will stay active in the neighborhood association to keep watch.

"You have to be watchful for your security," Anderson said. "People who leave their garage doors open or the gates to their backyard unlocked are inviting trouble."

Both say the neighborhood has experienced too many burglaries and code violations and has too many deteriorating rentals.

"The area kept going downhill and was deteriorating," Davis said. "Nothing against the police - they did what they could - but nothing was happening over there. It was just getting to the point where nobody wanted to get involved."

Davis said her most recent break-in came when someone threw a large object through her sliding French door. A new laptop computer containing her family history was stolen, but she's thankful she had the information backed up on CDs.

When her house was broken into in 1990, her grandfather's old doctor's bag he had received from an ancestor was stolen.

"That's what was most upsetting," said Davis, who lived on a corner across the street from Yavapai Elementary School. "They probably used it to dump my boxes of jewelry in. The gate to my backyard was still open, and I'm lucky my dogs didn't go out. What could've happened was scarier than what happened."

To be sure, the number of burglaries in Scottsdale have declined steadily over the last six years. There were 1,200 fewer burglaries in Scottsdale in 2007 than in 2002, equating to a more than 50 percent drop, according to FBI crime statistics.

And Scottsdale police Sgt. Eric Rasmussen said the number of burglaries in south Scottsdale has slowed down, thanks to recent arrests.

In January, Scottsdale police arrested Phoenix residents Octaviano Garza Meza, 29, and Sonia Ann Rodriguez, 35, who were believed to be connected to 39 of 113 south Scottsdale burglaries in a 1.65-square-mile area bordered by the Arizona Canal to the north, Roosevelt Street to the south, Miller Road to the east and 56th Street to the west.

DNA evidence on pieces of broken glass also linked transient Jonathan Lunsford, 26, and Saul Villar, 26, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, to burglaries in Scottsdale, Rasmussen said.

Lunsford, held in a Maricopa County Jail, was arrested on suspicion of four counts of armed robbery in February and admitted to committing multiple burglaries in south Scotts-dale, Rasmussen said.

Police said Lunsford was burglarizing a Hubbell Street residence in November when a woman returned home, causing Lunsford to panic before he found an exit, Rasmussen said. Lunsford, who admitted to that burglary, broke a window at the back of the house before pushing out the screen to gain entry.

Villar was arrested in late March in British Columbia, Canada, for being in that country illegally after he provided a false name to authorities when he was apprehended, Rasmussen said.

Villar was connected to a burglary in the McCormick Ranch neighborhood after Scottsdale received his DNA from the Arizona Department of Corrections. Villar had spent3 1/2 years in prison for burglary, according to prison records.

However, Canadian authorities are returning Villar to Mexico, and an outstanding warrant has been issued for his arrest if he is spotted back in the U.S., Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen said he wasn't sure how many burglaries Lunsford and Villar each were responsible for.

"That's the big mystery," Rasmussen said. "When you catch these guys, they can be responsible for 30 or 40 burglaries, but you might be able to prove they did four or five. These crimes happen in cycles. Sometimes, there's times when everything that's not bolted down gets stolen, and other times when it just stops."