Car burglars strike Westwood

A rash of car burglaries in the Westwood area Sunday evening have police wondering if a serial burglar may be working the neighborhood.

Three separate vehicles were broken into after 10 p.m. Sunday evening, all within a half-mile of one another in the southwestern corner of the city, leading police to suspect they are the work of the same person who systematically chose vehicles to victimize.

In addition to all being in the same neighborhood, the burglar was also selective in his targets, picking three cars inside which purses were visible.

One of the cars, a Volvo on South Arrowhead Drive, had a window busted out with an unknown object. A purse containing the victim’s ATM card, an IPOD and other valuables was taken from the car which was parked in the victim’s driveway.

From there it is believed the burglar moved north heading to Chickasaw Trail, which runs off of Arrowhead, entering a Nissan Sentra and taking the victim’s pocketbook. The purse, most of its contents missing, was found in a yard a short distance away.

The third victim, located further north on Indian Mound, also running off South Arrowhead, had her window broken just as was the case in the Arrowhead burglary. In this incident, a purse was taken from her Mitsubishi Eclipse after she parked the car outside the house around 10 p.m. Sunday.

While the burglaries could have been the work of a thief who was simply passing through, police are urging area residents to keep an eye out for any suspicious individuals or activities they see in the area in case the break-ins were the early work of a serial burglar in the neighborhood.