South Minneapolis Burglary

[Realstreets]

Thoughts on South Minneapolis spike in burglary? http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... 47312.html. Lots of garage break-ins, but also groups of armed men breaking into homes with people around. Kind of crazy. I know the police are expanding beats in precinct 3 but I think more should be done. And just so you don't think I'm some bumpkin, unfamiliar with the realities of urban life, I've lived in Chicago and Cleveland.

[mister.shoes]

We've been very fortunate to not have anything taken yet, but several neighbors have had their garages broken into. Including a young couple across the street who *just* moved here not a month ago. Ugh.

[Minneapolisite]

Yeah, they need to get these guys asap. I have a friend who lives in that area and might have been chased by these same guys after 2 AM and they weren't wanting her money. Be careful if you're out solo.

[grant1simons2]

Solo at 2am is never a good plan

[seanrichardryan]

Nothing good happens after midnight.

[ECtransplant]

After midnight can be pretty fun when you're not solo.

[MNdible]

Hey-oh.

[VAStationDude]

Be vigilant about securing your property. The lack of concern for basic home security among my neighbors is both frightening and reassuring. At least thieves will target their homes and not mine.

[Realstreets]

Be vigilant about securing your property. The lack of concern for basic home security among my neighbors is both frightening and reassuring. At least thieves will target their homes and not mine.

I agree. Just last night looking down the street, none of my neighbors had their exteriors lights on. No wonder burglars are creeping around. I also think it has something to do with gentrification. A lot of new homeowners (like me) are younger and have nice stuff. Security lights, burglar alarm and light activated exterior lamps are on my to-do-list.

Anyone interested in an easy and relatively cheap security system should check out Simplisafe http://simplisafe.com/.

[Minneapolisite]

Ah: young and naive. The perfect target for ne'er do wells.

[Pip]

One of the first days I lived in Uptown in April, I saw a pretty bad "fight" which appeared to be basically an assault because the other guy wasn't fighting back. One dude threw a guy down in the middle of the Bryant and 29th and was hitting his head into the pavement in the middle of the intersection at about 3am. After a minute or two, the guy stopped and they walked away in different directions. It appeared the guy was OK..ish but that could have ended very differently. I'm mentioning it because it was a (sad) reality check moving from the suburbs. Shortly after, I bought an HD camera that monitors Bryant and the 29th and Lake intersections 24/7. Some people think it's weird but you never know what might happen and video is king. Their was a guy a few weeks in South that caught an assault on video and the police used it to arrest the guys. I also bought a few personal defense items like a stun gun and mace. I'm not a small dude but having a little extra protection doesn't hurt. I rarely carry them but it's nice to know I have them available. I'm rarely solo in Uptown after midnight but living here, there are times. I'm sure I'm not the main target of these criminals but I still think twice about walking around after midnight. If I was a chick, I'd never walk Uptown or downtown for that matter after midnight. It's too bad we have to worry about things like that but it's a reality we have to remember, even when we've had a few drinks.

BTW, if anyone is interested, the camera I bought is the Foscam FI9826W for $199. It's an indoor camera but I made a homemade, outdoor shield to protect it from rain. They also have outdoor models for a little more. It's great for the price and has great low light quality. It can record 24/7, can be viewed/ controlled online and from your phone, and it pretty easy to setup. PM if you're interested and I can help set it up. Maybe some more cameras around with help in catching these fools.

[blobs]

Look at https://www.raidsonline.com/ for incidents.

Please make time to install security systems and/or cameras and encourage your neighbors to. It's the fastest way to catch these people.

[grant1simons2]

Looks like a majority of them are south of 37th. Just go to menards and buy a detector. You can set it so when the doors of your garage are opened an alarm goes off. They're cheap and easy to install

[Nathan]

let's not pretend effed up stuff doesn't happen in the suburbs. occurrences are probably just a frequent in comparison to it's density, and there are a lot of "unsuspecting" people out there. My parents who live in Maple Grove have had a number of robberies in their nice neighborhood this summer. (but every suburb has a different name so it doesn't sound nearly as concentrated when they announce things that happen in different areas)

[grant1simons2]

This is true. The Eden Prairie Police were sending out a lot of notices to shut your garage doors and lock your doors simply because people didn't do it. There's a street about a quarter mile away from me that had almost every single garage and house broken into.

[Realstreets]

let's not pretend effed up stuff doesn't happen in the suburbs. occurrences are probably just a frequent in comparison to it's density, and there are a lot of "unsuspecting" people out there. My parents who live in Maple Grove have had a number of robberies in their nice neighborhood this summer. (but every suburb has a different name so it doesn't sound nearly as concentrated when they announce things that happen in different areas)

I'm more worried about groups of men, maybe armed, waltzing into my home when I'm home, or just my wife alone. How many home invasions happen in the burbs? I think the lack of vigilance might invite more audacious burglaries. Any criminologists or urban sociologists want to chime in?

[grant1simons2]

More than you'd think. A lot of them have happened in Bearpath, the rich gated community in EP. They come in looking like movers and have shotguns in their trucks. They walk in and hold up the couple or family if they're home and start packing up the truck. I think there's more of a chance of this happening in the burbs than in the city. In the city the people who are robbing or mugging aren't very professional. I would think most of them are too scared to hold up a family and take their stuff in broad daylight. That's why they do it at night, they don't want to be seen, or encounter people.

[nordeast homer]

Looking at the police reports for EP, burglaries are actually down significantly over the last 5 years. In 2010 there were 114 residential burglaries versus just 52 last year. Granted 1 is too many, but this is more to say that it seems as if things are getting better, not worse.
On the other hand I looked at the burglary stats for Minneapolis and just in the first 6 months of the year I tallied up the burglaries in all the neighborhoods and came up with 2,225. Quite the contrast to E.P. Kinda makes me glad I have my alarm system!

[Nathan]

again that's not really a good perspective based on the density and number of housing units per square mile... Eden prairie is smaller in area than Minneapolis and has larger average household populations (being more families) I'm just saying if you put together 400,000 people's worth of crime even in the west metro, it's probably pretty close, identifying one suburb is why MPLS gets more of a bad wrap.

[MNdible]

I love Minneapolis like crazy, but I promise you that there's much more crime here, per capita, than there is in most suburbs. That's what happens when the region's largest concentration of poverty exists within your borders.