Homeowners say they've seen a change in the neighborhood. They're averaging two break-ins a week. On Tuesday at the town hall meeting, they had a lot of questions for Harris County law enforcement.
Charlie Lewis is a good neighbor. He likes to keep his lawn nice and neat. What frustrates this 25-year resident of Mission Bend in west Harris County is the overgrown number of burglaries plaguing his neighborhood.
"Over the past two months, we have had a spike in burglaries, people holding each other up in the driveways early in the morning," Lewis said.
A patrolman with the Mission Bend contract deputy program says there have been 24 break-ins this year, including nine in September. It's been enough to pack Tuesday night's civic association meeting, and several burglary victims were in attendance.
Alida Washington's home was hit on a Saturday a few weeks ago.
"We actually lost our big screen TV in the family room, as well as a television in the kitchen, and my daughter's camera," Washington said.
Harris County law enforcement assured homeowners they are investigating several credible leads but also added is that now is the time to change any complacent habits.
"My biggest pet peeve that I have is people leaving their garage doors open or leaving their windows open and 'I'm gonna run to the store' and then they come back and somebody has taken advantage of them," Harris County Sheriff's Office Major Silvio said.
That story sounds very familiar to Lewis.
"My neighbor across the street just had his weed eater stolen just Saturday out of his garage, so we can't leave our door up anymore because you don't know if someone is going to get something or not," he said.
So Lewis says all he can do is take care of his property and lookout for the neighborhood.
"We're not going to move out we are going to stay here and hold our own if we can. But its' not really good, doesn't make you feel too comfortable," Lewis said.
Homeowners also pressed investigators at the meeting and they revealed they're tracking a couple of suspects believed to be connected to multiple burglaries in the area.
