AUSTIN, Texas — Neighbors in the Easton Park neighborhood in southeast Austin said a group of thieves went to multiple homes and stole Christmas decorations and attempted to open cars.
The neighbors believe the thefts happened sometime late Sunday night into early Monday morning.
The surveillance video below shows the group neighbors believe did this as they ran away.
This video shows a person attempting to open a car in the neighborhood.
“I woke up in the morning and my inflatable Minion was gone. He was wearing a Santa hat and he kind of just disappeared overnight," Lucas Pagan said.
Pagan said other neighbors had the same thing happen to their Christmas decorations and that, in some cases, cars were also opened.
"I think down the street there was an ornament that was taken off and broken ... There was a small tree and a sign and a handful of other things throughout the neighborhood," Pagan said. "Cars that were broken into that were left unlocked, things like that."
Just down the road, Tyler Rodriguez said this is not the first time this has happened in the neighborhood.
“This has happened throughout the last year, multiple times," Rodriguez said. "If they were locked, they weren’t breaking windows or anything but it's something that happens pretty often.”
Rodriguez is hoping that more patrolling will happen in the neighborhood.
“At least just stop the issue from continuing because where does it end, you know?" Rodriguez said.
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In a different part of the neighborhood, Alex Acosta said he's had issues with people attempting to steal things in the neighborhood for a while now.
“Ever since I moved in – I think it was the second week in the house – a group of people tried to break in too and steal my vehicle, and that’s what prompted me to put up the security cameras and the floodlights as well," Acosta said. "These people see easy things in the lawn that they can kind of just pick up and run away with."
He said he's seen this happen on a monthly basis.
“At the end of the day, this is our homes and I don’t feel like we should kind of have to be in that feeling on constantly protecting ourselves," Acosta said.
Some of the neighbors told KVUE they filed reports with the Travis County Sheriff's Office.
Austin police said car burglaries typically spike during the holidays so they're promoting their "Lock It or Lose It" campaign, reminding drivers to lock car doors, even if they're stepping away for just a second.
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