Dec 2, 2009 6:12 am US/Eastern
Rash Of Burglaries Force Rye Residents To Mobilize
Cops, Neighborhood Watch Vow To Stop Mysterious Band Of Thieves Who Sometimes Strike In Broad Daylight
RYE (CBS) ―
During the holiday season, unoccupied homes filled with gifts are inviting targets for thieves. One band of burglars is terrorizing a Westchester County neighborhood and residents are fighting back.
With its manicured lawns, golf course views and homes full of luxuries this section of Rye is a burglar's heaven -- one they kept returning to, six separate times in a single month. Most of the ransacked homes were within a few blocks of each other.
"They need to get caught," resident Anne Petrocelli said.
Petrocelli is nervous knowing the burglars likely watched her leave her house and then pulled off their heist in broad daylight. They broke in through a back door.
"They took some jewelry and they took my safe right out of my basement with all our papers in it," Petrocelli said.
"They seem to go right to the master bedroom looking for jewelry. That is the property they've made off with," Rye Police Commissioner William Connors said.
Police have no suspects and few leads, so residents are banding together, forming a neighborhood watch, vowing to help catch the crooks.
"We'd rather catch them than export them to some other neighborhood," neighborhood watch organizer Dan Levinson said.
"We were always tight knit. Now we are even more tight knit," Petrocelli said.
Security experts said you may want to walk around your own house and try to think like a burglar. Are bushes overgrown easy places to hide? Are the windows and doors in the back easily accessible? And is the house too dark?
"Leaving a light on can be a terrific deterrent to somebody looking for a dark house to burglarize," Commissioner Connors said.
Connors advises all homeowners to lock all doors and windows, set security alarms, and look out for each other -- anything to make sure burglars do not make themselves at home in your home this holiday.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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