Tampa Police confront 'crimes of opportunity'

TAMPA - Ronda Jones-Barber, a Tampa police officer, is driving through Davis Islands, weaving through the streets of the upper-class neighborhood, looking at houses on either side of the road.

She's looking for one specific thing: open garage doors.

According to Jones-Barber, it's a common sight in this neighborhood. People who live here often leave their garage door wide-open in the middle of the day.

The bi-product of that is troubling. Tampa Police have seen an increase in the number of burglaries in the area, with the burglars often nabbing something out of the garage.

"(The homeowners) get busy and they don't go back and check out something they should have checked out," Jones-Barber said.

On a recent afternoon, ABC Action News rode-along as Jones-Barber drove through the neighborhood. In the span of about 15 minutes, we found at least four houses with their garage doors open.

Jones-Barber stopped at the houses to inform the homeowners their garages were open and that the police department had seen an increase in burglaries, dubbed by the police department as “crimes of opportunity.”

“They’re just going right in there,” Jones-Barber said. “They don’t have to touch anything else. They grab what they want and they go.”

And it doesn’t take long. ABC Action News recently conducted an experiment and found that a person could walk from the sidewalk into a garage, steal a bicycle and be back on the sidewalk in 10 seconds.

According to the Tampa Police Department, 40 percent of the burglaries reported in Davis Island last year involved open garage doors.