There have been three (3) home burglaries in Morris Township over the past three months. Our agency is actively investigating all three and proactively have practices in place to deter property crimes. However, we want our community to be aware of some of the patterns we are seeing. The burglaries that occurred had forced entry through the entrance or exit doors. This is consistent with some burglaries in surrounding agencies as well. From some of the surveillance and intelligence we have obtained, we can tell you that there are at least two (2) people working together to get into the homes and then they go directly to the bedrooms, specifically the master bedroom, in order to look for items such as jewelry. They bypass electronics such as tablets and laptops. Time frames can never be definite however these three burglaries occurred between 7 PM and 11 PM.
Some suggestions in order to make your home look occupied in order to attempt to deter these burglaries: lights on timers, motion lights, leave a TV on, dogs that bark, leave cars in driveway instead of on the street or in the garage. These are suggestions and while our hope is that they are a deterrent we cannot say that they are 100% effective.
Alarms are great because they narrow a time frame for when officers are dispatched. Surveillance cameras are also great because they can help us with the investigation.
If you see a suspicious vehicle in your residential area, please call the police department immediately. If you can try to get the make and model of a car along with the color and a direction of travel if the vehicle leaves, that can all be extremely helpful to police. Also, if you can tell what state the license plate is from or even obtain the license plate number, while making sure you are not in any danger, then that is also helpful.
If your home is burglarized, do not touch anything. Call 911 immediately, exit from the same door you entered along the same path you took until you saw your house had been broken into.
Let’s work together not just to solve these burglaries but also to prevent them. For further information regarding suggestions to make your home a hard target, please call the Crime Prevention Unit at (973) 326-7450. You can also take advantage of our free Home Security Survey and Vacant Home Check.
