CORAL GABLES POLICE DENY “CRIME WAVE” AFTER BURGLARIES

Posted By Posted By Parks & Braxton, PA || 3-May-2013

Coral Gables residents are concerned about a recent string burglaries, but local police say that the incidents to not indicate a crime wave in the city. Coral Gables police released a surveillance video recently that shows a man with a cane peering into the windows of an apartment building. According to police, the man may be involved in string of apartment burglaries that have the local community worried about their safety.

Several months ago, a local woman came home to her apartment and discovered that an intruder pried open her door while she was gone. After calling the police, the woman discovered that the intruder removed $10,000 of jewelry, carry-on baggage, sweaters, mini-skirts, a coat, and a Rolex watch from the premises. The break-in also caused approximately $1,500 in property damage to the front door. Police believe that the burglar had the passcode to enter the apartment building.

“You can see him put the pass code in,” said the woman, “and then you can see him with baggage inside, and he had tool to open the front door,” she told news sources. The woman said that she felt unsafe after the incident. “Now I feel good, but after the situation, I was very worried and afraid. I had to put more security at the door,” she told a local news source.

The Coral Gables acting police chief told The Miami Herald that the recent influx of burglaries does not indicate a crime wave. “I want to be clear,” he said in an email, “there is no crime wave in Coral Gables; this is a very safe city. Although Coral Gables is very safe and we’d like to eliminate all crimes, that’s not realistic anywhere.” 1,966 criminal incidents were reported in the city between May, 2011 and February, 2013, but none of these crimes involved murder.