14 News, The Tri-State's News and Weather Leader-Evansville sees over 1,200 burglaries in 2009

Evansville sees over 1,200 burglaries in 2009

By Gretchen Ross - bio | email | Twitter
Posted by Jill Lyman - email

EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) - With the holidays approaching, local law enforcement stay alert for a possible increase in robberies and burglaries in the area, but what about during the rest of the year?

14 News has been tracking robberies and burglaries by the different Evansville zip codes, and finds no neighborhood is immune.

However, there is an area of the city that has been hit harder then most the past year.

"It kind of gets to you whenever people come into your house and invade your stuff," said burglary victim Jake Benton. "I mean like all my drawers and stuff were overturned. Everything was trashed in my house. All the couches moved to one side, looking behind there. It was bad."

Jake remembers December 12 of last year all to well.

What started off as a normal school day, ended with someone burglarizing his family home on Ravenswood Drive.

Jake says they took his game systems, his laptops, and all their accessories.

His family wasn't alone.

In his zip code, 47714, which includes the southeast side of town, 185 burglaries happened in the last year.

Almost one burglary every two days.

Out of those 185, ten occurred in Jake's neighborhood.

"Usually around this neighborhood, you never think that people will come in and break into your house, especially when you are at school, and you think your house is safe where all your possessions are," said Jake.

Last year more than 1,200 robberies and burglaries were in the city of Evansville, 910 of those residential burglaries.

Here's a look at how the other zip codes compare:

On the city's north side, in zip code 47710, there have been 56 robberies and 80 burglaries.

Moving to the southwest part of the city, in zip code 47708, residential burglaries jump to 136.

Both robbery and burglary numbers drop heading further west, in 47712, to 12 robberies and 45 burglaries.

The largest concentration of robberies and burglaries happen in zip code 47714, with 30 robberies and 185 burglaries.

"There is a concentration down there of apartments, so there has been a bit of a spike there," said Evansville Police Chief Brad Hill.

That number drops dramatically in the zip code directly to the east, 47715, with only nine robberies and 30 burglaries.

Chief Hill says it's not uncommon to see a difference in numbers between the zip codes from year to year.

South Sector Crime Prevention Officer Billy Bolin says he's had to step up patrols the past year after a string of burglaries popped up in the downtown historic district.

"Hidden cameras in the area, unmarked police cars. We had unmarked police officers walking around in the area," said Bolin. 

Bolin says the burglaries eventually stopped, thanks to cooperation with neighborhood associations and a tip line.

Bolin thinks there is no particular area of the city safer than the other. He says are the days when residents can keep their home unlocked are gone. 

"Lock your doors. Turn on your lights. Pay attention. A lot of times all people need is a wake up call," said Bolin.

A wake up call Jake Benton and his mother now take to heart.

"We lock all our doors now, and we got a new lock for the side door. We lock all the windows," said Jake.

The Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office says since May, there have been 53 burglaries and four robberies in the county.

Sergeant Doug Daza says that most of those burglaries, 20 of them, happened on the west side of the county closer to U.S.I.'s campus.

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