Resident: Burglars hitting northwest Houston homes in moving vans to throw off neighbors

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Burglars have been busy over the past month in the Inwood Forest community. Victims in the area are sending a warning to their neighbors that some unknown thieves may be using moving vans to take off with stolen items.

"I mean, they just pretty much just took what they wanted to take and left," Orlandes Muckelroy said.

Muckelroy said it had to be a group of sneaky burglars who broke into his family's house -- burglars who could have been discreetly casing homes from a nearby bayou in the Inwood Pines subdivision.

"See, really nobody can see back here," Muckelroy said.

Muckelroy told us he came home Friday to find his back windows broken, his home ransacked and his garage door open.

"First thing I noticed, the TVs were all gone," he said. "Somebody stole everything out of the house; every electronic item."

What's more disturbing is that a neighbor claims to have spotted the culprits in the driveway, loading the family's belongings into a U-Haul moving van. But that neighbor didn't think their presence was suspicious enough to call police.

"Our neighbor, she seen them. She thought it was somebody just moving, but it wasn't us," Muckelroy said.

This northwest-side community is getting hit pretty hard with burglaries right now. Houston police records show there's been about 30 burglaries reported in this patrol beat in the past 30 days. Police said 21 of those crimes were in the Inwood Forest area.

"Once we find a crime analysis report that shows a concentration of burglaries in a certain neighborhood, then we will focus those resources into that area so that we could try to catch those people," HPD Sgt. Frank Escobedo said.

Muckelroy told police two men and a woman were allegedly seen loading up the U-Haul outside his home. Now, he's urging neighbors to be alert. "If you see somebody with a moving truck, and it's not somebody you know, just check up on it," Muckelroy said.

Police are also urging residents to be vigilant in reporting suspicious activity, especially during the day when most of your neighbors may be away from home.

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