By Ben Rodgers
Staff Writer
HOWARD – The Howard Police Department is encouraging people to be on the lookout for suspicious activity as the area has seen a spike in day-time burglaries.
“Day-time burglary activity is usually an individual or a couple of individuals that all of the sudden become very active in our area,” said Deputy Patrolman Jim Dangneau, directed enforcement officer with the village of Howard. “It’s not like there is this new and exciting crime taking place.”
Burglaries during the day are not common in the area.
“It’s unique when it happens,” Dangneau said. “It does happen from time to time, until we catch them, and that is our goal as always.”
The burglaries have happened in the past two weeks in various communities on the northwest side of Green Bay.
There have been seven residential day-time burglaries and three non-residential overnight burglaries, according to the press release from the Brown County Sheriff’s Department.
The three non-residential burglaries occurred in Suamico between Nov. 16 and 18.
The seven others occurred in Howard, Suamico, Hobart and Pittsfield.
The sheriff’s department believes the daytime burglaries are connected. It also believes the others ones may connected as well, but it is unsure if they are all connected.
At night power saws, generators and power washer along with other power tools were taken. Those items would not have been easy to remove from the scene.
With the day-time burglaries, the crimes are being committed in a quick fashion. In one incident the victims were away from their residence for less than an hour.
The items missing were small valuables which are easily carried away.
The increase is numbers is enough to draw concern from officials.
Dangneau urges people to be on the lookout.
“A lot of times when we do solve these cases it because of people calling in a suspicious vehicle they don’t normally see, or a suspicious person showing up at their door,” he said.
One tactic criminals use is going up to a house in the middle of the day and ringing the doorbell.
If no one answers they mark it as a potential target. If someone does answer they inquire about a random name being home to sound like they have a plausible excuse.
“The more eyes in the community that we have watching for absolutely anything that could seem suspicious is helpful for us,” Dangneau said.
Items people should be on the lookout for include:
• Vehicles that don’t belong in the area, and people walking away from those vehicles
• Vehicles casing the area slowly
• Unknown people walking around neighborhood houses
• Unknown people at your door with strange questions
Some tips Dangneau shared for keeping homes safe include
• Using a deadbolt on all outside doors, including the garage
• Not having deadbolts installed next to windows
• Closing drapes and blinds that are visible to the road
• Always looking the garage
• Always looking vehicles
Although Dangneau said the spike in day-time burglaries isn’t necessarily connected to the holidays, he did said a theft at this time of the year can hurt.
“It’s personal and it doesn’t feel good,” he said. “You feel violated and it’s a terrible feeling over the holidays.”
The Brown County Sheriff’s Department has set up a tipline to report any suspicious activity, 920-448-4213. Callers can also remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at 920-432-STOP. If you believe a crime is being committed call 911 immediately.