JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After dozens of recent home and car break-ins, some residents in the Holiday Hill community between Atlantic and Beach boulevards are installing surveillance cameras and banding together with their neighbors to fight back.
"We're going to be a force on our street, so hopefully the rest of the neighborhood catches along and we can get this done and taken care of," one crime victim told News4Jax.
The man, who was too afraid for his family to give his name or show his face, said someone broke through a window of his house Jan. 5 and took all his electronics and a camera that contained all his family's memories.
"I came home with my daughter and saw that the TVs were gone. (I) checked the rest of the house and saw they destroyed the bedroom," he said.
Using the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office crime-mapping tool, News4Jax found there had been 17 home burglaries and 10 car burglaries in the area within the last six months.
Neighbors have posted signs on the outside of their homes, hoping the criminals think twice before coming back.
News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith suggested not only surveillance cameras outside, but an alarm system on the inside.