The Victim: Jeff and Carol Barrows
The Crime: Burglary
Date: Sunday, May 20
Time: Between 9:10 a.m. and 12:05 p.m.
Location: 9200 block of Clearhurst
He peeled away in the Lexus.
The Barrows had left early on a Sunday morning for church, as they do each week. Sunday school and the pastor’s sermon beckoned just like every other Sunday. But this would be no regular Sunday morning.
“While we were gone, someone broke in through the window above the kitchen sink,” Carol Barrows says.
The thief ransacked the family’s White Rock Valley house and emptied it of a large amount of electronics, including two flat-screen TVs, three laptops, an Xbox, Nintendo Wii, iPod and more. It was a haul of more than $7,000. And that’s not all. The thief made his way to the garage and used the Barrows’ 2002 Lexus as a getaway car. Neither the car nor any of the property have been recovered, but police are still investigating, she says. Police also told Barrows that neighbors witnessed someone driving away in the car around 10:45 a.m.
“It’s a pain, but it could have been a lot worse,” she says.
Burglars are often known to scout out a location before choosing to enter and steal, says Neighborhood Police Officer Mitchell Gatson of the Dallas Police Northeast Patrol Division.
“It is possible that a suspect could watch them leave for church,” he says of this case. “Church time is a good time for a criminal to see an opportunity and break into the home.”
A good neighborhood watch and getting to know neighbors can help to prevent these types of burglaries, Gatson says. Neighbors are always asked to report anyone suspicious or something that seems out of place.
| crime numbers |
8700
Block of Park Lane where the dead body of a black male was found in a wooden area off White Rock Trail on June 12; the man had been shot, and a murder investigation is underway
2
Number of sexual assaults on women that occurred at a bus stop near Richland College, one on May 29 and another on June 5; police have arrested 21-year-old Marquis White in connection with the crimes
7:33am
Time of day on June 6 when a naked man was found walking in the 8200 block of Skillman between Royal and Church; he was arrested without incident
