HOUSTON – There have been more than a dozen robberies in a west Houston neighborhood, and one resident said he has had enough.
It’s happening in the Pheasant Trace Village neighborhood near Eldridge Parkway and San Martin Lane.
The resident did not want to be identified but said it's time to speak up.
Residents told KPRC no one in the Pheasant Trace Village neighborhood wants to go on camera for fear of retaliation. They believe the robbers probably live in the neighborhood too.
About a week ago, there was a brazen nighttime robbery
Security cameras captured the suspects' car blocking a driveway as two men get out of a vehicle. One man carries a rifle. The other man appears to rob the person who just pulled into the driveway. The man takes everything the victim has.
“His wallet, car keys, backpack and his dinner,” said the resident. “It’s not like your average run-of-the-mill smash-and-grabs criminal. This guy had training. He approached in a straight line,” the resident said.
A few months ago, an elderly woman was robbed in broad daylight and the robbery was caught on security cameras. The resident described what he was told the robber did.
“He ran up, pulled a gun as he approached her in the driveway,” he said. “He did strike her with a weapon. She panicked. She threw the keys into the street.”
The resident is collecting images of the crimes. One, he said, is a picture of a bullet hole in a vehicle, from a shot fired by a man who tried to carjack a driver.
The resident described what he was told about the incident.
“(A man) runs up to the car, takes his wallet, his phone, his backpack and tells him 'Just get out of the truck,'" the resident said. “When the driver hit the gas, he fired a shot.”
Not all the robberies have been reported to law enforcement authorities, because people are afraid, the resident said. He said he now carries his firearm all the time.
“Something needs to be done or we're going to do it,” he said.
KPRC contacted the Harris County Sheriff's Office and provided the case number of the armed robbery.
The office is in the middle of switching its computer system and could not access information about the case at the time of this story.
A spokesperson said he would check on the case and that the Sheriff's Office is interested in picking up the surveillance video.