'Midnight Burglars' Strike Multiple Homes In The Bronx, Yonkers
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Residents on both sides of the Bronx-Yonkers city line are on edge this week, because burglars have struck eight times in the middle of the night over the past month.
As CBS 2's Lou Young reported Tuesday, four of the robberies happened in Yonkers, and four more happened right next door in the Bronx. All the victims had nice homes, and in every incident, the families slept through the night and woke up to find that they had been victimized, police said.
"I can't find my purse, I can't find my jacket, then I look around and realize that a couple computers are missing; my husband's briefcase," said burglary victim Jessica Schwab.
All the burglaries happened between midnight and daybreak. They all involved basement windows or unsecured doors.
"My sister, my mother -- they were upstairs sleeping," said victim Danny Allon. "It's a whole different level when you burglarize a house with people in it."
And it appears that the thieves know full well that people are at home.
"Much worse than your stuff being taken is knowing someone was in your house while you were here," said victim Shari Hain. "It was pretty obvious we were home – the lights were on, there were two cars in the driveway -- so it's pretty brazen."
And that is what has police worried in both the Bronx and Yonkers – that someone is going to walk in on the thieves at the wrong time.
It appears the burglars are primarily on the hunt for easy-to-transport electronics.
"They took all the iPads, laptops, flat screens, nothing of other -- (my daughter's) computer," Allon said.
After three weeks, those who were victimized were still annoyed.
"They took the Xbox and my school backpack," said a boy named Jonah Hain.
Police sad they have made some progress, recovering some of the computers. There has been one arrest for possession of stolen property, but the assumption Tuesday night was that the midnight burglars are still out there.
Police said the best protection against these particular burglars can be as simple as a working alarm system.
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