Burglary

THE VICTIM: Damon Dudley

Sign up for our newsletter

* indicates required

DATE: Thursday, June 29

TIME: 2:45 a.m.

LOCATION: 6100 block of Vickery

It was almost 3 a.m. on a Thursday morning when Damon Dudley woke up to the sound of someone talking. He saw a light on in the backyard garage and immediately called the police.

“I just can’t believe … I mean, they turned the light on out there,” Dudley stammers. “That’s pretty ballsy.”

He decided not to use the same approach toward the intruders, saying he “didn’t want do the confrontation thing by myself.” Instead, he walked out front to wait for the police and saw his neighbor walking down the street toward him. It turned out his neighbor had been burglarized, too.

They began driving around the neighborhood together and spotted an old white pick-up pulling in and out of driveways. It looked suspicious, so Dudley and his neighbor cornered the truck.

“But it was just the Wall Street Journal delivery guy,” he says.

The police arrived 30 minutes after he called, Dudley says, but by that time, the burglars were long gone. They had broken the latch on his gate and entered the garage, where they took a bicycle, weed eaters and a fair amount of power tools.

“I’ve got a pretty good shop. I’ve owned a construction company before,” Dudley says.

They even went to the trouble to take the power tools out of the cases before stealing them. The burglars didn’t, however, steal anything heavy-duty, including the lawn mowers. In all, Dudley lost $5,700 worth of equipment.

“This time, I’m turning it into insurance,” he says. “Insurance is paying for this baby.”

The last time Dudley was burglarized, he was simply out $5,000. Thieves somehow made off with a brand new 600-pound generator that was chained to the back of his truck.

Breaking into garages is a common way for thieves to access a home because it’s often the easiest way in, says Sr. Cpl. Ron Carpenter of the Northeast Police Division. Sometimes people make it really easy on burglars and leave their garage doors open, he says.

In this case, however, the garage was detached, and the thieves had to pry the locks off. Carpenter wasn’t as surprised they were brave enough to flip the light switch.

“Since it’s a detached garage, basically it’s almost like a storage building, and that time in the morning I think they didn’t think there’d be any problem turning the light on,” he says.

Dudley has lived in his house for only two years and in that time has been burglarized three times. For him, the third time’s the charm — he says he’s moving.

“I want to stay in Lakewood, but this isn’t worth it,” he says.