Falls Church City and Arlington County Police are investigating a series of recent residential burglaries and ask residents to lock their doors and report any suspicious activity immediately. Ten residential burglaries occurred in neighborhoods adjacent to Broadmont in the City of Falls Church and East Falls Church in Arlington between Sept. 2 and Oct. 7. Most of these incidents occurred between 6 p.m. and 3 a.m. on various days of the week.

The suspects entered the residences through unlocked doors and/or kicked in doors secured with double deadbolt locks. The suspects entered residences with and without alarms systems. It appears that in a few cases the subjects cased the neighborhoods looking for an empty residence, where no one was home at the time of the incident. In one Arlington case the residents were home at the time of the burglary.

The items stolen in these burglaries include expensive electronics such as laptops and iPods, a handgun, passport, bank checks and expensive jewelry.

Arlington County, the City of Falls Church, and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Police and are working together on this investigation. Extra resources have been deployed into the neighborhoods for surveillance and to hopefully catch the suspects before they can strike again.

Residents are reminded to lock doors and windows at all times (vehicles included) and make sure home alarm systems are in proper working order and activated. Anyone with information concerning these burglaries or anyone seeing anything or anyone suspicious is asked to immediately contact the City of Falls Church Police Emergency Communications Center at 703-241-5050 or call 911 if it’s an emergency (example: burglary in progress).