Home burglaries have increased in Lubbock over the past three years, especially during the summer months.
The Lubbock Police Department attributes this to several factors, but said the increase in family vacations during June, July and August is most likely why the home burglaries increase.
“We actually did see that over the summer months, between May and August, we did have a spike in home burglaries,” said Lubbock Police Department spokesperson Tiffany Pelt. “There could be a number of reasons. You automatically think vacation, families are going on vacation during the summer.”
Owner of Texas Homeland Security and Sound, David Burns, said that criminals look for signs that you’re on vacation before they target your home.
“Keep the lights on, have your neighbors collect mail and newspapers for the few people who get those delivered, if you’re going to be gone for an extended amount of time, make sure someone is moving your lawn,” said David Burns. “Those are the things burglars will look for that are a tell tale sign that you aren’t home.”
LPD said this number has increased the past three years but they haven’t seen quite the same summer spike this past June.
“It could be a number of reasons, and were still only half way through the summer. It could be that we have more people patrolling,” Pelt said.
But there are many things you can do to protect your house from home burglary.
“It can be something as simple as letting your neighbor know that you’re going out of town and for them to watch your house,” said Pelt. “They think they need to rely on motion detection lights, I recommend dusk to dawn lights. It comes on at night and stays on all night long,” said Burns.
Burns also recommends investing into an alarm system instead of a camera system. He said an alarm system is better because it can call the police if there is an intruder whereas a camera system cannot.
Another important tip is to not post your vacation plans on social media. This tells practically anyone that you’re out of town, and your house is unattended.
