New business on I-10 blamed for rise in crime in Katy

KATY, Texas (KTRK) -- If you build it, they will come.

That's both a blessing and a problem for the Katy area.

Police say new development and businesses along I-10 are bringing in more crime, ranging from car break-ins to burglaries. A lot of those auto burglaries have taken place in the parking lots of the new hotels in town.

In one high-profile crime spree, police said two men were responsible for breaking into at least 12 cars on Westgreen.

Apparently, they were allegedly working their way up through the city, hitting the Holiday Inn Express, Days Inn, Country Inn and Suites, Spring Hill Suites and Homewood Suites. They are all near Katy Mills Mall.

The suspects' take was also shocking. Police recovered guns, ammo, a cell phone, tool box, laptops and more.

"In this case, the parking lot was well lit," said Harris Co. Constable Precinct 5 Investigator Kayla Fesperman. "And it was probably about 3 o'clock in the morning, and they're just out not really caring who sees them."

Katy police found the two men that night.

To quantify the crimes, police say car break-ins have jumped, from 148 in 2015 to 163 in 2017.

Mayor Chuck Brawner said the explosion of businesses along the I-10 corridor is bringing more people and more crime.

"There's always going to be crime," Brawner concedes.

Other crimes are also up like breaking and entering. From 29 in 2013, the amount of those incidents more than double to 78 in 2017.

"It's just a fact that you're going to have crime, so you try to mitigate that crime by having good police patrols, good cooperating between the various police agencies, which we have here in the city of Katy," said Brawner.