A Dallas business community is raising concerns of burglaries and robberies taking place within a popular shopping district.
Store owners say it’s been an ongoing problem along Lovers Lane by the Dallas North Tollway for years.
Youssef Mourtada said his Shell gas station has been hit three times, the most recent robbery attempt happening just weeks ago.
"They just walked in here, they pulled the gun on him [his employee at the cash register], he run inside, he locked the door, and he called 911," he said.
Mourtada said he added security cameras, but the problem remains the same. "It's very frustrating you know, especially, I'm scared for my workers. I'm not here at night. It's very frustrating," he said.
Down the street the Patrick O'Hara hair salon has also been broken into. "They came in the middle of the night and they drilled through our lock on our front door. [They took] hair products, high end french hair products," he said.
O'Hara said prior to that he's had at least a couple of break-in attempts. He also said neighboring stores were also burglarized and robbed multiple times.
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One boutique was hit just a few days ago.
"The criminals will attempt to break into businesses 5:30 and six o clock in the evening when there's kids running up and down the sidewalks and going to the Tex Mex restaurant down the street," he said.
O'Hara said he also upgraded his security system and warned his employees to stay alert. "When they're here late at night, or in the evenings I always encourage them to lock the front door and tell them 'Don't let anybody in unless you're expecting somebody to come in,'" he said.
Dallas Police patrols the stretch of Lovers Lane west of the Dallas North Tollway, and University Park Police patrols the east side.
University Park Police Captain Bill Mathes said their coverage area was only four square miles and they regularly have officers driving through the area. He said as far as he knows there hasn't been any requests for additional coverage by Lovers Lane. He said a typical response time is less than three minutes.
