JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Residents of an apartment complex in the Arlington area are worried about a recent rash of break-ins.
Four apartments at the Avalon Hills apartment complex off the Arlington Expressway were broken into and burglarized Thursday night, all while people were not at home.
"It's unsafe. I feel like I'm scared to go to sleep at night because of these robberies," said resident Raquel Dornes.
"It's no surprise at all. We hear about break-ins and car break-ins all the time here in the neighborhood," said resident Isaac Sanders.
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Aarah Hill was one of the victims of Thursday night's break-ins.
"Several items taken, TVs, guns, cameras, groceries, all of my groceries, clothing, jewelry, all my jewelry, just destroyed my apartment," Hill said.
Another victim, April Ajavon, just signed her lease with the apartment complex on Wednesday.
"I came home from my lunch break and my house was broken into. All of my flatscreens were taken, some of my daughter's electronic things," Ajavon said.
Ajavon says she's leaving at the end of the month.
"It's very easy to get in from the back patios, back porches. It's very easy to kick in a door. The doors are not secured at all. And I have a three year-old child and I'm a single parent, so it's very scary living like that out here, " Ajavon said.
Channel 4 crime and safety expert Ken Jefferson says while you may not be satisfied with your home's security, take any precautions you can to better protect your loved ones and yourself.
"Because some of these burglaries have been occuring through the sliding glass door, you want to take every step to prevent a person from entering through the sliding glass door by placing a long piece of wood at the bottom between the jam to make sure that no one can slide it open and no one can pry it from the bottom of it," Jefferson said.?
"You can purchase additional window locks for less than $5 at a local hardware store just to place on your windows as an additional thing to do to help prevent persons from coming in.
Jefferson says generally speaking, burglars spend about 1-2 minutes trying to get in and if they fail in those minutes, then they'll leave and they'll go somewhere else.