Residents in an east Fort Worth neighborhood say they're "freaked out" after a recent robbery that was caught on video and involved a gun. They're on edge and frustrated that it took police six days to pick up a resident's surveillance video, which shows the thieves in action.
The man whose camera shot the footage, Kevin Dorr, was anything but surprised at what he saw when he returned home for lunch June 8.
"I knew it was happening, we get it all the time, said Dorr. "We're a dead end street not far from a bad neighborhood, we get it all the time."
This time a man and a woman in a white SUV were taking junk items from near Dorr's garage when he returned home. He blocked them with his truck and called 911. He said they pleaded with him not to call and he eventually went inside his home. The couple waited outside, tried to talk to him again before the man grabbed the keys and squeezed the SUV between Dorr's truck and a neighbor's home. The home suffered some damage to a window where an A/C unit is attached.
Dorr then tried to prevent the woman from getting in the car.
"I told her 'she's not going anywhere," said Dorr. "She kept telling him to shoot me, I turned around saw a gun and walked away."
It's a somewhat frightening daytime incident, but one residents of the tight West Meadowbrook Neighborhood said is fairly common, whether its break-ins or people casing the neighborhood posing as house cleaners.
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But Wednesday's robbery, and then the belief that the same man came back to Dorr's house early Sunday morning, has everyone on edge.
"And the police not having come to get the video has everybody really freaked out, really freaked out," said neighbor Stephanie Enlow.
While neighbors are frustrated it took six days to pick up the video, the department says proper procedure was followed in assigning a detective to investigate the felony robbery. And while the video is now being analyzed, neighbors said they'll continue to look out for one another.
"Everybody knows who's car's what and if it's somebody we don't recognize, we come outside," said Enlow. Neighbors added that they e-mail each other whenever any crime or suspicious activity is present in what they call "The Enclave" along Stratford Drive and West Meadowbrook.
As for Dorr, he said he's just glad the suspects came to his house.
"I have cameras and guns," said Dorr. "I can protect myself, I'm not that old, some of neighbors are elderly."
Fort Worth police don't condone people confronting someone who's breaking into their home. They encourage people to be the best witnesses that they can be so crimes can be prosecuted.
