Karen Gleason
Del Rio police are investigating a series of burglaries in and around downtown that occurred between late January and late February.
Del Rio Police Department Chief Fred Knoll Jr. said Wednesday the break-ins under investigation include those at the Friends of Hospice Bargain Box, 106 W. Greenwood St.; the St. James Episcopal School, 206 W. Greenwood St.; the City of Del Rio Transportation Depot, 100 W. Ogden St.; the Sacred Heart Catholic Church and School, 209 W. Greenwood St. and the Amaro Eye Clinic, 305 E. Garfield Ave.
Knoll said another break-in, at the former Austin Elementary School, located in the 300 block of West Chapoy Street near Brown Plaza, now a school district maintenance facility, is also being included in the list of burglaries, but said the school district’s police department is handling the investigation.
“It doesn’t seem like there was any specific motive in any of the break-ins, as if the person or persons involved were looking for specific things, like electronics or keys to vehicles. It seemed like they were just opportunistic. A lot of this stuff seemed very at random, like they were just rummaging through things to see what they could get,” Knoll said.
The burglar or burglars’ biggest haul came from the St. James School, Knoll said, where $1,100 cash was stolen. The break-in at the school is believed to have occurred between 2 p.m. on Feb. 17 and 5 p.m. on Feb. 18, according to DRPD Capt. Robert Guzman.
Nothing was missing from the City Transportation Center, Knoll said, and city staffers told police they believed the burglary there occurred between 5 p.m. on Feb. 19 and 4 a.m. on Feb. 20.
Knoll said a television and video cassette recorder were stolen during the break-in at the Friends of Hospice Bargain Box. That burglary is believed to have occurred between Jan. 29 and Feb. 13.
An unspecified amount of currency and some food items were taken during the Amaro Eye Clinic break-in, believed to have occurred between 7:30 p.m. Feb. 26 and 9 a.m. Feb. 27.
Nothing was taken during the burglary at Sacred Heart. The burglary is believed to have happened about 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 27.
The police chief said the lead investigator in the case, DRPD Detective Trevor Snyder, has obtained “physical descriptions” of at least one suspect.
“One of them was from witness information, and the other one is coming from a camera in the nearby area that caught the person,” Knoll said.
“On one occasion, an officer actually got into a foot chase with the suspect because they showed up within minutes of the call being put out, and the officer engaged the individual, who got away,” the chief added.
Knoll said physical evidence, including DNA, was recovered from some of the burglary sites.
Knoll said contrary to some theories circulating in the community, the burglary suspect or suspects are not believed to be immigrants being released into Del Rio by the Border Patrol.
“I understand there’s a lot of hyper-vigilance about that going on right now, because they’re coming in bigger numbers, but I will tell you that our non-governmental organization that is running the processing center here in Del Rio has done a very good job of getting all of the migrants out before they have any time to wander around in our community,” Knoll said.
