Foxborough Resident Spots Attempted Break-In on North Street; Police Investigating Incident

Another attempted housebreak has Foxborough police on alert and asking for the community’s assistance Tuesday.

“If you are home and see something suspicious say something,” said Foxborough Police Chief Edward O’Leary. “Give us a call so we can at least check it out. It doesn’t help the homeowners to have their stuff ripped off.”

The attempted break-in occurred at a residence on North Street before noon Tuesday. O’Leary said the resident “happened to be home at the time and called police right away.”

“There was no car seen by the homeowner,” O’Leary said. “Officers responded right away to the 911 call and screened the area but was unable to locate the person.”

The suspect is described as a white male in his early 20s with a small build and military-style haircut. He was seen wearing a white hoodie or white jacket, according to O’Leary.

This is the fourth break-in or attempted break-in reported to Foxborough Police in two weeks. O’Leary said while it is unknown at this time whether Tuesday’s attempted break-in is related to the other housebreaks recently reported, residents must remain alert.

“With good weather, we have a lot of people out roaming our neighborhoods so we are just asking all of our residents to be alert,” O’Leary said.

The Foxborough Police Department has offered the following tips to help prevent housebreaks:

• If you return to your home and discover that it has been broken into, BACK OUT right away, and dial 911. It is important that you do not touch anything or try to clean up a mess. We will respond to your house and we will check to make sure there is no one still inside.

• Be aware in your neighborhoods for any persons/vehicles that seem suspicious. Trust your instincts. If something doesn’t seem right, chances are - it’s not. Try and get a description of the person or vehicle and their direction of travel. Get the license plate if possible. This could be very useful information to us in our investigations.

• Typically, when these type of thieves target a house, they will ring the doorbell or knock on the door to see if there is anyone home. If you are home, you should make yourself known. You do not need to answer the door, but can go to a window or yell out that you are too busy to answer the door. Generally, this will deter potential thieves and make them go away. If they believe no one is home, they will try to enter.

• If you do answer the door for someone, and they give odd reasons why they are there, call us. Give us a description of the person or vehicle they were in and their direction of travel. License plates if possible.

• Many of these thieves are interested in small, valuable items that they can leave your house with and draw as little attention to them as possible [jewelry, small electronics, etc.] Most thieves, after they enter your house, will head right to the master bedroom looking for jewelry, then to the bathroom looking for medications. You can protect yourself by keeping your jewelry and medications in discrete locations. Thieves do not want to spend a lot of time in your house. They will only spend a few minutes inside. They will not waste time searching your whole house to find what they want. If they are unable to find what they need shortly after entering, chances are they will leave empty-handed.
• Take pictures of the jewelry you have, and write down serial numbers of your electronics. These can be useful in trying to track down stolen merchandise.
• Although costly, alarms are a great deterrent. Your house alarm should be ear-piercingly loud and mounted on both the inside and outside of you house. Ideally, outside alarms should be mounted as high up on the house as possible facing the street or neighboring houses to draw more attention to them. Loud alarms will not only draw attention to your house, but they will startle and discourage intruders.

• If you have more than one vehicle, it is a good idea to leave one in the driveway instead of the garage when you are out, which will create the illusion that someone is home. Thieves generally do not want to be noticed and do not want to break into your house if they think you are home.

• Connect with trusting neighbors, and share information with them. Let them know when you are going to be away and see if they can collect your mail, trash bins, deliveries, etc. When these items stack up, it lets thieves know that there is no one in the house.

• Most importantly, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO CALL FOXBOROUGH POLICE at (508) 543-4343 or 911 - if an emergency- if you see something that you think is out of place. You can be our greatest ally and partner in helping us catch thieves.

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