It appears that cat burglars are targeting the Northwest Hills area of Austin. Cat burglars are thieves who slip into homes while residents are there, and make off like bandits. All of the victims have one thing in common: accidentally leaving their doors unlocked at night.
“It's exceedingly creepy,” says Robert Thomas, who was burglarized recently. “This is a neighborhood full of retirees, stay-at-home moms caring for families. It's bad enough that someone would do this during the day, that our homes would be scoped out during the day.”
Thomas says a burglar or burglars tried to get in through a back door he had accidentally left unlocked.
“4:15 in the morning, my alarm went off, waking my whole family,” Thomas says. “I was disoriented, ran to the alarm panel to see what had triggered the alarm.”
Thomas says it is one of at least 10 cat burglaries in Northwest Hills since December, starting with Jodi Allen.
“Our family was home sleeping, and our garage was cleaned out by robbers,” Allen says.
She says she had heard a noise in her kitchen, but thought it was her teenage son. She now thinks that the burglars tried to get into her house.
Thomas adds, “We have a neighbor right down the street, watching television with the lights off and two men, two or three men, she saw looking down into her living room, through her skylight.”
Just last Sunday, Thomas says that an elderly woman woke up in the middle of the night, to find a large, hooded man, standing in her bedroom. She and her husband screamed and the man ran, taking money from her and her husband's wallets.
The most recent incident happened after about 80 concerned neighbors had met with police.
Thomas says, “Unfortunately, two days later, two doors down from my house, a neighbor was broken into; same situation. They had unfortunately left their door unlocked. Guy walked in the back door and lifted the guy's wallet.”
Austin police say they have stepped up patrols in Northwest Hills. They ask that residents keep their doors locked and their eyes open for any suspicious activity, and to call 911 to report it.
