HOUSTON – With more than 1 million CenterPoint Energy customers still without power, crime in Houston remains a growing concern.
The Houston Police Department says it arrested four people for “taking advantage” of the outages and were caught breaking into businesses; all of which had no power at the time. They are all facing felony charges for burglary.
ARRESTED: These felony suspects tried to take advantage of power outages due to #HurricaneBeryl by breaking into businesses. Two of them targeted a business @ 4400 Lockwood Dr. and 2 others @ 9401 Cullen Blvd. on Tue. (July 9).
— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) July 10, 2024
Our officers immediately arrested them.#hounews pic.twitter.com/vVklm0kUqe
In a recent press conference, Houston Mayor John Whitmire and acting Houston PD Chief Larry Satterwhite had a warning message for criminals:
“If you’re a criminal out there, let me send a message on behalf of everyone that can hear my voice: Don’t think about it,” Whitmire said. “We’re out there. We’re in plain clothes. We’re patrolling neighborhoods and businesses, and we will hold you accountable.”
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“You have your entire police department working,” Satterwhite added. “Basically, half of it is working day shift and half of it is working night shift and it will continue in that posture until we think that it is safe enough and appropriate when we get power back on.”
Acting Chief Satterwhite also is urging anyone who sees something to say something. You can either call your local non-emergency number or 911 if you think that it’s a serious enough crime.