The Victim: Dennis Cochran
Location: 10000 block of Cole Ridge
Date: Tuesday, July 22
Time: 3:00 a.m.

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In the dead of night, nothing stirred on Coal Ridge Street. Dennis Cochran and his family were asleep under the watchful eye of a custom-made security system. With a motion sensor floodlight and eight security cameras along the perimeter of the house, the Cochran home was a virtual fortress — or so he thought.

Around 3 a.m., two men strolled up the alley to the back of Cochran’s house and pilfered three of the cameras and the floodlight.

Cochran didn’t notice the cameras missing until three days later.

“My wife wasn’t happy when I told her of the news,” Cochran says.

He went back and reviewed the security video in search of some clues. The thieves were “caught on tape,” captured on Cochran’s computer hard drive. The footage shows two men, but not much more can be deciphered, he says.

“They were a little crafty,” Cochran says. “The cameras caught them five minutes before they were stolen. The images were blurry because one of their faces was too close.”

Cochran says the men used a chair from his neighbor’s house as a makeshift ladder. Then they clipped the cables and unscrewed the base of the cameras from the house. Cochran says the cameras are useless with the cables cut, and that these men would have to be exceptionally knowledgeable to reconnect all those wires.

This is the first time anything like this has happened to his house, he says. He has been a member of the neighborhood Volunteers In Patrol (VIP) program for the past two years. The cost of this crime added up to $1,100, but he’s working with his insurance company to get that covered.

“I’ve enjoyed the comfort level of the security system,” Cochran says. “I like seeing what is going on outside the house at any time.”

The video of the crime was burned to a DVD and submitted as evidence to the Dallas Police Department.

While Cochran can’t identify the thieves, he says he has a hunch.

“Some new people have moved into the neighborhood about a month ago,” Cochran says. “Since then, there has been an increase in crime. Also there is a lot of activity at that house that might be drug-related.”

Dallas Police Sr. Cpl Eddie Crawford says because Cochran is a member of the VIP program, the suspicious house should already be monitored.

“If he is aware or suspects that a new neighbor is causing trouble, then he needs to notify officers in the Northeast Division of his concerns about the problem,” Crawford says.

“As far as the cameras being stolen, it doesn’t matter if they were for security or not. If someone wants something bad enough, then they will take it.”