PEARLAND—
Parents beware: There's a rash of burglaries targeting daycare parking lots in Pearland.In most cases, Pearland Police said a mother pulls in to pick up a child and comes back to realize thieves have stolen the valuables inside her car.
Police said parents in a hurry to pick up their children will often leave the car unlocked - or even running - believing they will only be inside for a couple minutes.
"You may only be inside for a minute or two, but it takes less than five seconds for someone to steal that purse," Pearland Police Lt. Onesimo Lopez said.
Pearland has had six car burglaries at daycares in July. In three of the cases the cars were left unlocked. In one case, the car was even left running. Thieves are catching on, according to officials.
"This is the first time we've had six in one month," Lopez said.
Police said the crooks generally look for a woman jumping out of the car empty-handed, meaning the purse is likely in the front seat.
"So if they'll take your purse, who knows what else they'll do," said one mom pulling out of a recently-burglarized daycare parking lot. "We have to watch our purses when we go inside. Somebody is sitting out there watching."
In most cases, the thieves are looking for credit cards, police said.
"I know one case for sure we've had - within an hour of the purse being stole -n charges were showing up at businesses in Houston," Lopez said.
Besides the obvious precautions of locking the door and hiding any valuables, police said people should also be vigilant any time they leave the car.
"What it looks like is we have people just sitting in the cars in the parking lot that just look like other parents there to pick up children," Lopez said. "Generally, people don't pay any attention to that type of thing."
Police have two suspect descriptions. One is a white man in his 30s or 40s. The other is a black man of unknown age.
