MESQUITE, Nevada – A string of home burglaries throughout the city has residents in Mesquite on edge and police warning homeowners to keep doors locked and eyes open.
Detectives said they’re currently investigating 30 different burglaries across the city. It’s an 82 percent increase in home burglaries from just five months ago. Mesquite police Lieutenant MaQuade Chesley said they’re different than past burglary sprees. Instead of taking off with large, expensive items, thieves are taking whatever small items they can get away with quickly.
“It’s widespread,” Chesley said. “The concentrated area, our officers have gone to those [Home Owners Associations], the communities during their meetings and essentially informed them that we’ve had an upswing of burglaries.”
Police are warning residents to keep doors locked, garage doors down, and be on the look out for suspicious activity in the area. Chesley said detectives are following up on various leads, along with looking into the possibility that suspects have come to Mesquite from larger neighboring cities to prey on small town security.
“In Mesquite, we’re right up against I-15, we’re on that corridor," Chesley said. “So many of the burglaries we’ve had in the past are people from different communities, Vegas, St. George and basically doing a crime spree and leaving town.”
Mesquite resident Robert Maglish said he’d heard of the crime spree, but isn’t terribly worried. He and others in his neighborhood said they already take precautions to protect their homes.
“We watch for it, strange people walking down the street, or kids in the day time,” Maglish said. “We lock all doors, we make sure our cars are locked all the time with the alarms on, so we feel pretty safe.”
Police say if people notice suspicious activity or people that shouldn’t be in the area late at night, they should contact Mesquite police so detectives can follow up and see if it’s related to the burglary spree.
