Police patrolled the Woodbridge neighborhood on horseback after a home break in: Photo by Clayton Greenberg
Dallas is on high alert after the publicization of several summer home burglaries or attempted break-ins. There was the L Streets homeowner who came face-to-face with a thug, and then this much-viewed footage of a would-be burglar caught on a home-surveillance camera.
In the past week my Woodbridge neighborhood, which is located at the far north end of Lake Highlands, near Forest and Audelia, has suffered at least one attempted burglary. In a separate incident, a neighbor captured video of a young man attempting to break in to a car parked on the street. He left after determining it was locked.
Here’s how Ginger and Clayton Greenberg describe the break in at their home, which occurred Aug. 19 an was reported at 11:41 a.m.:
“They broke a window in the back of the house with what looked like a fireplace poker (which they left in the house). We do have an alarm system, but I failed to arm it and within a period of 30 minutes, from 10:55-11:34 a.m., with the alarm off, they broke into our home. Clayton surprised the burglars while he was walking around to the front of the house to get in; they had locked the back door so that he could not get in while they were in the house. No one was hurt physically and the children were not aware.” Clayton has since contacted award winning locksmiths to repair some damage and has vowed to always arm his home alarm system.
Police responded and took fingerprints at the home. The Greenberg’s offer the following advice after talking to police, Ginger says:
“Be sure to arm your alarm; they are looking to see if one goes off when they break a window or try to enter another way (we might have only had a broken window).
Be vigilant about watching out for your neighbors (our neighbors saw the likely thieves in our alley the weekend before and called the police to make them aware which may lead to an arrest).
No reason is too small to call the police if you see something suspicious. We have to make the police aware.”
It was initially reported that the suspects may be male, in their early 20s and Latino. The Dallas Police Department has not provided any additional information.
Last Friday Dallas Police sent mounted officers to the Woodbridge neighborhood. The officer I spoke with said they were assigned following several calls from residents alerting police to suspicious people in the neighborhood.
The man caught on video attempting to break into a parked car was Caucasian, tall and skinny and appeared to be wearing an apron from some sort of service job.
