Lola's Boutique assistant manager Torea Torry works next to a window that a burglar used to break in to the store on two different occasions, despite increased security efforts at the Riverbend shop. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
A rash of business burglaries in the Riverbend area that preceded the long Carnival weekend has since subsided, police said, but with the cases still unsolved, the burglar could resurface at any time.
“We haven’t had any more,” said Sgt. Marc Amos of the NOPD Second District property-crimes unit. “But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist anymore.”
Investigators were confounded by the intense spree of business burglaries, which clustered around Maple and Oak streets in Carrollton in the days leading up to Mardi Gras. All told, 13 business break-ins were reported in the two small zones around the area since the beginning of the year – with only six others in the entire broad swath of Uptown that comprises the NOPD Second District.
Some businesses were broken into more than once, including Lola Boutique on South Carrollton. Assistant manager Torea Torry said he struck first in mid January, breaking in through a window and trying to get cash out of the register. Unsuccessful in that attempt, he ran out the store’s back door, then ran back in shortly afterward and stole the entire cash register, the store’s surveillance video showed.
After the burglary, the store added motion sensors to its alarm system, but in February, he broke in again, Torry said. The new alarms went off once he got inside, and he left empty-handed, she said.
“What are the odds of it not being the same person?” she asked. “Thieves get comfortable in a neighborhood. They know how to escape if they need to.”
The video images that have been captured of the burglar suggest a white man with a very small frame, which Amos said would be necessary given some of the tight spaces he has apparently squeezed through during the burglaries. The repeat break-ins at Lola were indicative of his “absolutely brazen” style, continuing his spree even after the Second District began pouring extra patrols into the neighborhood, Amos said.
The current pause in his pattern could be attributable to any number of factors, Amos said. The burglar may have been arrested for a different crime elsewhere, without any obvious evidence on him at the time to implicate him in the Riverbend burglaries, but taking him off the street nonetheless. The additional patrolmen investingating the area stopped numerous people who fit the burglar’s description, and while they were unable to tie any of them conclusively to the burglaries, Amos said officers may have stopped the right person and the scrutiny convinced him to take his spree elsewhere.
“We may have just heated up the area to the point where he got uncomfortable committing the crimes and moved on,” Amos said.
The fact that he is still unidentified should remain a concern for Riverbend business owners, Torry said.
“It’s always a concern, especially because it’s happened more then once, but we have done what we could to beef up security,” she said. “He seemed really comfortable. I would tell shop owners to be careful who is coming in your store. They might be scoping out your store.”
Anyone with information about the burglaries should call CrimeStoppers at 822-1111.
