Kudos to police for quickly nabbing a couple of thugs who robbed two women early Sunday morning at Second and Commerce in the River Market district. The women flagged down a cop, a description of a vehicle went out and it was stopped soon after in North Little Rock. The women’s stolen purse contents were recovered.
Now if the cops could figure out the new guy(s) working my neighborhood. Within less than an hour Saturday morning (an unusual time for such crime, police say), a house two doors up the street was burgled shortly after the occupants left for a gym workout. The thief came in a back door, swept through the house and went out the front — alarm blaring all the while — before police arrived. About an hour later, a home intruder robbed a mother and daughter in a home about 200 yards further west. That house was in sight of a vacant home burgled and set fire just a few weeks ago. Whoever the perp is (I’m thinking three crimes within 400 yards or less suggest the same person, perhaps operating from a nearby residence, is responsible) it’s not the guy who robbed my next door neighbor while I was on vacation. He remains behind bars in a string of five robberies in the neighborhood. He’s also a suspect in a series of robberies in El Dorado, apparently committed after he blew town for a while following my neighbor’s robbery.
This quick in-and-out trend — alarm or no alarm — is, I’m thinking, perhaps encouraged by the easier portability of flat screen TVs, a popular target of thieves. I’m also continuing to think the shortage of jail space doesn’t help.