The Lubbock Police Department is responding to three commercial burglaries on average every single day. This type of crime has been on the rise for the last few years.
According to LPD, there have been 61 commercial burglaries in just the month of June. So far in 2017, there have already been 269 commercial burglaries. This is compared to the total 380 seen in 2016.
Two business owners, who were recently burglarized, are fed up with the increased crime.
“Unfortunately, he got away and we weren’t able to get him,” said owner of Oh So Cynful, Cynthia Rodriguez. “It’s hard, you don’t know what to expect being a business owner, anything can happen anytime. Wherever you are in Lubbock, crime rates have just gone up.”
Her business was targeted on Monday morning when a man broke through multiple windows. Luckily for her, the criminal was unable to get in due to the heavy dressing rooms.
But other business owners aren’t that lucky.
“I had gotten a call that we had been broken into and the guy had thrown a rock through the bottom of the door, came in and took several things of merchandise,” said owner of Roots 34, Breanne Griffin. “Because we didn’t have an alarm system, he came back in and was able to get more stuff.”
LPD emphasizes that there are ways to prevent your store from being targeted for theft. They suggest investing in a good security camera system that not only records the criminals but that also alerts you as it happens. They also said to install bright lights on the inside and outside of the store to make sure the cameras can get a clear shot of the criminal’s faces.
According to LPD’s community crime map, 25 commercial burglaries happened in the last two weeks, including the ones at Oh So Cynful and Roots 34. Business owners are upping their security measures because of the increase in crime but are afraid of the repercussions.
“We actually have roll down doors that come down over the store front which you don’t want because of foot traffic,” Griffin explains. “You want the foot traffic, this is where the college kids go out at night so you want them to walk by and think ‘Oh a nice boutique.’ But for security reasons, we’re going to have to start using those doors to make sure we aren’t as vulnerable as the beginning.”
