EDGEWATER — Residents in Edgewater appeared relieved Tuesday night to learn that three arrests had been made connected to at least 11 burglaries in a recent crime spree, including a teen-ager wearing a home-arrest ankle monitor.
But the 1-square-mile city on Denver’s western border has been rattled by 26 break-ins, usually in the daytime, since Oct. 30. No one has been injured in the break-ins, but pistols were taken in one burglary.
“We’ve always had residential burglaries in Edgewater,” he said. “I think people’s attention to this (now) is because there were so many in such a short time,” Police Chief Dan Keough told a full house at the Edgewater Recreation Center.
Keough and members of his staff encouraged residents to form Neighborhood Watch groups and communicate among themselves and with police about suspicious activity.
“We can’t do it all.” he said. “No police department can.”
He told the group that his 15-officer department has stepped up patrols, while still managing traffic and safety at three schools in the city. He listed successes the force has had recently to allay concerns, as well.
“We’re arresting people left and right,” he said. “But when you are the one who is a victim of (an unsolved) crime that doesn’t mean anything.”
A 15-year-old boy from Edgewater, who had been sentenced to house arrest for a string of burglaries last year, used his daytime confinement to commit a series of break-ins. He was arrested Jan. 19 after a resident caught him inside a home. The boy fled, but was picked up later and confessed to nine break-ins.
Detective Mark Hamilton said evidence also connected him to five or six other break-ins he has not confessed to.
The boy had been sentenced to house arrest for a series of similar offenses 10 months earlier, the chief told residents.
“The break-ins started on Oct. 30, just a couple of days after he got the ankle monitor,” Keough said.
The boy usually rummaged for cash and armed himself with either a pellet gun or a knife from the home, Hamilton said. In some cases he would vandalize the homes, as well.
The boy told police he typically would knock on a door between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to see if anyone was home, then scan the area to see if any neighbors might be watching. He would then go behind the house and check for open doors or windows, or kick in a door or window, Hamilton said.
The boy became a suspect when a resident caught him in a home and the boy fled.
One or both of two other men arrested are believed to be involved with break-ins in neighboring Lakewood and Wheat Ridge, though they are not believed to be working together, Hamilton said.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
