HOUSTON – On a Wednesday morning, a real-life gun battle happened in an upper-middle-class neighborhood in Katy.
"It sounded like firecrackers, but like right next door to us," Deirdre Baker said.
Baker lives in the neighborhood, which is at least a 30-minute drive from the hustle and bustle of downtown Houston.
"I was surprised. I never expected anything to happen out here," Baker said.
It all started when a man taking a walk noticed a strange SUV parked in a neighbor’s driveway. He told police 3 men were loading it up with stolen items taken from inside the home.
Police responded to the scene and got into a shootout with the suspects. Two of them were arrested. A third was shot dead by officers.
Across the country, home burglaries, car burglaries and auto thefts are on the rise. So for months, 11 News has been looking into the numbers and pulling property crime reports for 10 of Houston’s biggest suburban communities.
We then took those numbers to a nationally recognized institute (NICAR) to have them analyzed. Here’s what they uncovered:
Ranking communities as high, average and low, the property crime rate per capita was the highest in Humble and Missouri City – even higher than what was found in Houston.
A Humble resident, who didn’t want to be identified, told us she was not surprised. "Just my experience," she said. "Our neighbors have been broken into."
The City of Humble said its numbers are high because of all the retail businesses there, which includes Deerbrook Mall.
Humble Mayor Donnie McMannes said at least 250,000 people visit Humble every day.
"You know Humble police has the right mindset. They have set up programs where they have zero tolerance at Deerbrook Mall, but at the same time people don’t want to stay over there so they linger around this area," said Johannes Azucena.
Azucena and his family own a house in the neighborhood behind the mall.
He said cars and homes have been broken into on his street.
Missouri City said it is catching a lot of burglars. Earlier this week, detectives caught two men responsible for a rash of home burglaries.
They said so far in 2010, property crimes are down in Missouri City.
To check crime for yourself, you can click on the city’s outstanding website. On the site, you can see all the calls for police that occurred in the last 24 hours. And with one more click, you can track crime in Missouri City neighborhoods.
"And you can put in your address and you can see what crimes have occurred around you and we think it’s very informative for the citizens to see," said Captain John Bailey.
The lowest property crime rates were found in Friendswood and Sugar Land.
Sugar Land’s Assistant City Manager Steve Griffith said administrators and business owners emphasize deterring crime.
"We are now working with license plate recognition systems," Griffith said.
Sugar Land monitors vehicles going into its Town Center and First Colony Mall, and if a crime occurs, officials can go back and look at the license plate recognition cameras to retrieve a license plate number.
In Baytown, 11 News talked with resident Larnisha Smith.
"I came back to my car and my purse and laptop were gone," Smith said.
Baytown, Conroe and The Woodlands are in the middle of the pack when it comes to property crimes. They join Pasadena, Pearland and Katy in that category.
