Doylestown Police Chief Stephen White says he is especially concerned about the most recent rash of burglaries for one reason.
"They don't really care that people are at home. On January 5th, we had a guy kick in the back window of a house, a senior citizen was in there, and she screamed," White said.
In that incident, in the 600 block of North Shady Retreat Road, the burglar fled after the homeowner screamed.
Most recently, another break-in in the middle of the day took place at a home in the 100 block of Woodview Drive.
"That to me – that it's in daylight, that it's kicking in the deadbolt - it makes it completely reckless and we're finding that it's probably drug-fueled. Some of the people that we've arrested are involved with OxyContin and heroin," White said.
Chief White says Doylestown Township is not alone in the recent rise of home burglaries.
He says most, if not all of the nine municipalities in Central Bucks County are being hit.
It's the unpredictability of burglars-on-drugs that raises the level of concern.
"What concerns me about this group of people is they don't seem to care if anybody's in the house. That endangers our residents and I think that as a community we need to take a stand together," White said.
Of course, all of this has residents concerned.
"It's very unsettling because of what level of desperation would do that? Usually when people are robbing, they're not interested in doing it when the homeowner is home," Kira Kraimar of Doylestown said.
Police say often times someone will see something they think might be suspicious, but then think nothing of it and won't bother to call police. The thinking here is, they'd rather you call them and let them check it out because it might be nothing and then again it might be the commission of a crime.
