Police Chief Dave Zibolski
FARGO (KFGO) – Fargo Police are investigating a string of residential burglaries they believe to be related.
Police Chief Dave Zibolski said the burglaries began around six months ago, and happened when the residents were not home.
Zibolski said access was gained by cutting cables and electrical cords on the outside of the home, possibly to disable security systems. He said the burglars got inside the homes through windows or sliding glass doors.
Police have good leads, according to Zibolski, but are not sure exactly why certain homes – located in the Centennial, Rose Creek, Stonebridge, and Timberline neighborhoods – are targeted.
“We’ll probably know better (why certain houses are targeted) once we catch the individuals who are involved,” Zibolski said. “Some of them are higher end homes, but not all of them. The key component that we see is that the people are not home.”
Zibolski said it was evident to burglars in some way that no one was home, making the residence an easier target.
“During the winter… people are gone for a week or two weeks, and someone isn’t maintaining the snow plowing and clearing, it’s pretty easy to pick those houses out,” Zibolski said. “In the summertime, it’s more difficult, so we’re not exactly sure how they’re determining that.”
Zibolski said extra precautions can be taken to protect homeowners from being targeted. He says motion-censored alarms, in addition to door alarms, with battery backups can be effective. He also recommends that residents notify neighbors of when they will be gone, and to document and store valuables in secure locations.
Zibolski said he encourages people to photograph valuables, especially those with high value such as watches, jewelry, etc.
“If it’s something you can mark and put a serial number on it, or it already has a number on it – like firearms, and things of that nature – go through your house and create an inventory of those items,” Zibolski said. “Even if stolen, having those photos, the marking of them or the serial numbers is critically important to us in terms of us locating those items, should they be pawned at some other location, and then making sure we can verify it is your property. And that we can identify who’s involved.”
Zibolski said tips can be submitted by calling the non-emergency line, at 701-451-7660, or by texting to 847411.
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