Thieves continue to target South End homes

The string of home burglaries that started earlier this year on the South End appears to be continuing. Within the past week, there have been seven reports of burglaries or vehicle prowling incidents at homes in Clinton, Langley and Freeland.

All told, there have been more than 16 reported cases of theft, burglary or attempted burglary from South End homes since early April.

And though two people have been arrested and convicted for several of the burglaries of businesses in Freeland, police said this week the recent break-ins at South End stores do not appear to be linked to residential robberies.

“Many were just crimes of opportunity,” said Island County undersheriff Kelly Mauck. “It doesn’t appear to be linked to the recent crimes.”

“It is not an unusual number of burglaries,” Mauck said, adding that some of the reports have turned out to be unfounded.

Some haven’t been, however.

In one case, on April 24, a homeowner interrupted an attempted burglary but the would-be thief, a young man wearing a red hat, took off in a Jeep.

“No entry was made. Somebody was shaking the front door and the attempted entry was interrupted,” Mauck said.

Mauck said a few of the burglaries are still under investigation.

One involved a car prowl situation where a woman supposedly broke into a motor home in Freeland. In another case, money was taken from a home in Clinton, though how much was not known, Mauck said.

In still another case, a homeowner suspected a young man had stolen about $200 worth of tools from a barn after asking her about Island Transit schedules, the undersheriff said.

“She saw him go toward the barn, which was near the driveway he walked down to leave her property,” he said. “And the tools came up missing shortly after that.”

One case, however, went from a case of an alleged burglary to a case of a person who had permission to be in the home, Mauck said.

Police have not identified suspects in the burglaries of residential homes.

Contact South Whidbey Record Schools, Fire Dist. 3, Freeland Spencer Webster at swebster@southwhidbeyrecord.com or (360) 221-5300.

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