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Chesapeake community fighting for a neighborhood watch after nearly 60 home burglaries

Posted at 7:42 PM, Sep 03, 2013
and last updated 2013-09-15 23:16:29-04

[ooyala code=”RhczA2ZTruYIWiTbRrtuLXfhFxprKbZV” player_id=”55ce3a06495346ddb20768902d1e991c”]Chesapeake, Va. – There have been almost 60 break-ins in the Indian River section of Chesapeake over the past month, all within a one-mile radius, and all the homes were broken into during the day.

“Personally, it seems like detectives are pretty lax, like this is an everyday occurrence for them. It is not an everyday occurrence for me so to see the nonchalant attitude is a little disheartening,” says Wendy Stedman.

We first introduced you to Wendy Stedham earlier this month the day after her home was burglarized.

“They got a brick from my neighbor’s yard over there, they threw that through the door and broke all the glass in the door,” she says.

After our first story, we pulled some numbers and found 59 homes had been broken into within a one mile radius of Wendy’s home, all in six months and only five people have been arrested.

While in the neighborhood, NewsChannel 3 did notice one thing lacking, a neighborhood watch.

Taking action, we sent an email to police stating “there is no neighborhood watch in the area, perhaps that is something we can help the Chesapeake Police Department get going.”

Lt. Mike Cole patrols the area frequently and says the police department is on board.

“We do not have the resources to put an officer on every block, so the community helps us by being our eyes and ears out there in the community,” he says.

Wendy says she`ll be the first to sign up.

“And I hope that more people would be willing to step up and intervene, and maybe they can prevent something like this from happening to somebody else,” she says.