Oakland sees increase in home burglaries

OAKLAND – Coming home to a ransacked home with missing items has almost become routine for Oakland resident Ken Ireland. 

Ireland, who often travels for work, said in the past 18 years his home has been broken into four times and his detached garage three times. 

So after returning home from a four-day trip July 23 to his ransacked home, he wasn’t entirely surprised, but he was frustrated. 

“My house has kind of been singled out,” Ireland said. “From the time that I’ve been here, my house has been broken into four times and my garage, which is detached from my house, has been broken into three times. On this last break-in, my Volvo was stolen out of the garage, which was secured. The house was ransacked. All they got was $600 cash, but these guys have gotten to be pretty smart about what they’re doing.” 

Ireland said the most recent break-in was a bit different than usual, explaining that the burglars typically try to gain entry from the back of the house but instead came in through a bathroom window this time. 

The window, he said, had been painted shut for years. So the criminals not only smashed the window but also the entire window frame. And although he has an alarm system and cameras, he learned that a lightning storm that hit over the weekend had disabled it. 

“At this point, I’m so frustrated I can’t even see straight,” he said. “The first question I asked after I calmed down is whether there’d been an increase in break-ins. And the cops said, ‘Oh yeah, this has been going on for about seven to eight weeks.’ ” 

Statistically, police departments usually see an increase in home burglaries over the summer. Oakland Police Lt. John Peek said the town occasionally sees random upticks in burglaries at least every other summer. 

Compared to the summer of 2016, Ocoee saw a 15% increase in home burglaries this summer, while Winter Garden had a 35% decrease. However, Oakland — a town of about 3,000 people — has seen an 80% increase since the summer of 2016. 

From May 1 to June 28, 2016, Oakland had two home burglaries. This year, the town has seen 10 during the same time frame. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, Oakland had only 11 home burglaries in 2016. 

With 12 residential burglaries reported since January 2017, the town is currently on track to see double the number of break-ins compared to last year. 

Peek said the higher incidence of home burglaries that tend to occur in summer could be correlated with school sessions because most of the burglars are young teens, and once school’s back in session, the reported break-ins tend to decrease. 

“It happens, if not every summer, then every other summer,” Peek said. “And some cities have more incidences than others. For example, if Ocoee or Winter Garden have a large increase, then that’s probably due to their size. ... But I’ve been a cop here for a long time, and Oakland has a very low number of incidents overall. But even then, we still saw a few extra ones this summer.” 

The department has leads on a couple of those cases, Peek added, but officers are still in the process of the investigations. Regardless, with this last break-in, Ireland said he has had enough and just purchased about $2,000 worth of firearms to protect himself in the eventuality that one of the next break-ins occurs while he is home. 

“It makes me sick to my stomach that I am now arming myself, because I don’t think it’s a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” he said. “The chances of me being home during the next break-in are very, very high. I’ve now had seven break-ins, and I’ve been very fortunate I haven’t been home.” 

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Contact Gabby Baquero at [email protected]