Lawrence police busy with another string of home burglaries
Lawrence police had their hands full Sunday with another string of home burglaries.
The first report came just before 1 a.m. Sunday from an apartment in the 1300 block of New Jersey. A witness told police a suspect had alcohol on his breath when he forced his way into the apartment looking for money. The witness yelled and the suspect fled.
Three hours later, police were scouring the Oread neighborhood after five reported burglaries only a few blocks apart.
Four homes on Indiana Street were targeted more than six hours apart.
Around 4 a.m., residents at 1809 Indiana awoke to the sounds of someone trying to get in through their back door. They say the suspect quickly fled when they got up to investigate.
At 9:47 a.m., a call came from 1725 Indiana, where an elderly woman was awake in her kitchen when she too heard someone trying to come in through her backdoor. The woman says the suspects broke through her screen door but never entered the home.
Witnesses say officers then went home-to-home looking for evidence of other break-ins. That's when they discovered someone had burglarized Michael Schaetzel's home at 1745 Indiana.
Schaetzel said the suspects "tried to break down the lock with a rock, and then decided go through the dog door. They realized nobody was home here so they decided to come inside and ransack the house.
"I setup a camera to try to catch, try to scare them off, but we weren't home and when they let themselves in they took the video tape," Schaetzel said.
Police recovered a knife inside the home and plan to dust it for fingerprints. This was the second time in a little more than a month Schaetzel's home was burglarized.
Around 10:30 a.m. Sunday, a home on Mississippi was targeted. A couple who had recently sold the house was not home when someone tried to break-in through the backdoor of the home.
The busy morning ended with police responding to a burglary at the Hawks Pointe Apartments on Louisiana Street.
Police recently arrested several individuals in connection with a host of other home burglaries.