AMARILLO, TEXAS -- An Amarillo woman woke up to her worst nightmare. Jan Sullivan woke up in the middle of the night to a man breaking into her home. Although night time burglaries are uncommon in this area, this crime shed light on the real issue of burglaries here in Amarillo.
Home burglaries have gone up this year. So far there have been 1,589 home burglaries compared to the 1,394 reported in 2011.
Most of the burglaries in this area have had the same MO where burglars will knock on your front door. If no one answers, they will go around back and kick in your back down and grab anything they can and leave.
Randall County District Attorney, James Farren states that these cases are in fact drug related.
"80 percent of all daytime burglaries are drug related," he said. "They'll kick in your back door and grab one or two items and head to the pawn shop to get their next fix."
Farren also states how there is usually an increase on burglaries around most holidays, and certainly around Christmas time.
Sullivan is a testament that these crimes can happen to anyone and to remember to take all safety precautions necessary this holiday season.
"You don't really think it's gonna happen to you but nobody's exempt," said Sullivan.
