Minneapolis police are warning residents, businesses and others in a large portion of the city about a surge in burglaries in recent weeks, with the daylight hours being the favorite time for perpetrators to carry out their crimes.
In an alert widely distributed Tuesday evening in the Third Precinct by police, investigators say break-ins from April 1 through Monday have been coming at a rate of more than three a day in what is basically the eastern half of south Minneapolis.
The 77 burglaries so far this month in the precinct is a 45 percent increase over the same period last year and have occurred throughout the precinct, the alert read.
Police have picked up some patterns that the burglars are following:
• 75 percent of the break-ins have occurred during the day.
• Fridays were favored by the criminals for break-ins 28 percent of the time.
• About one-fifth of the targets for burglary were garages.
Police say they have made five arrests in connection with some of the burglaries and are ramping up patrols in the hardest-hit areas.
