SPENCER, Okla. – In the past two months, 23 Spencer families had their homes broken into.
This is an alarming number for a population of less than 4,000.
“In one neighborhood in particular we’ve had 17 of those 23,” said Allen Lane with Spencer Police.
The Bentree County Addition was hit the hardest.
“Most of these burglaries are occurring between the hours of 7 a.m. and about 6 p.m.,” said Lane.
At one home, thieves knocked out the ac unit and made off with jewelry and electronics.
The Brown family wasn’t home but that doesn’t take away the sting.
“It was kind of scary,” said Jerone Brown.
Police said in most cases burglars are busting through front and back doors.
Instead of using thin, small one inch screws for your door lock, police officers recommend using much longer thicker three inch screws.
The three inch crews make it more difficult for bandits to kick in your door.
“We’ve been able to recover some fingerprints from some of the crime scenes and sent those off; however, to date we have not been able to match those fingerprints with anyone currently in the data base,” said Lane.
For now officers are increasing patrol and making themselves available to make house calls.
They’ll show homeowners weaknesses in their security and tips on how to fix them.
Brown said he’s grateful the outcome wasn’t worse when thieves broke into his home.
“Thank God everyone was safe and no one was here.”
Detectives say even if you can’t afford a home security system try to at least buy an alarm that makes noise, because that can alert neighbors and scare burglars away.
There is a community meeting on Monday night at City Hall to discuss the department’s next steps.
