But for thieves, we had almost no crime in December. Unfortunately, we had plenty of thieves, enough to drive our crime stats back up from the November drop.
 
At a joint meeting and party of the Carriage House and Neighbors Who Care neighborhood associations, Officer Robert Duncan told members that a rash of home burglaries had been committed in the neighborhoods along the axis of Firewheel Pkwy. One burglar, probably thirty-something, driving a four-door black car, has been described to police. There is a chance the same person was responsible for multiple break-ins.
 
The break-ins were during the day and always from the rear, usually by kicking in the back door but also through a window. Except in the one case, no one was home.
 
Officer Duncan advised everyone to watch the streets for suspicious people not usually in the neighborhood, especially anyone sitting in a car that might be monitoring people coming and going or acting as a lookout for the burglar(s).
 
It is always important to keep garage doors down, your house locked, and to be diligent, but the risks might be higher right now until these burglars are caught. Keep an eye toward protecting your neighbor's property as if it were your own. Look for suspicious people even while driving through alleys. Working together, we'll all be safer.
 
It's okay to call 9-1-1 to report suspicious people, cars, and actions. It is a help to the police and gives them information that could be helpful solving crimes. A report of a suspicious vehicle in one neighborhood might help catch a thief that decided to move on to a different neighborhood.
 
Forty-three of the 72 theft cases were for shoplifting. That means many offenders were actually apprehended. The spike in that category might be related to the Christmas season but we don't always see a spike in December.
 
If you want to review the areas that have reported incidents over the last month, download the complete report here for address-by-address information that includes your neighborhood. If you are reading this but do not live in District 1, you can get reports for your area here on the Police Department's website.
 

 
P.S. If you are in the Carriage House and Neighbors Who Care neighborhoods, look for the Facebook group Carriagehouse Neighbors for timely updates and neighborhood communications.