AUSTIN, Texas — From the windows of an office building on West Tenth Street in Downtown Austin, you can see joggers, bikers – and even burglars.
“Yeah, last week we had a rash of burglaries, starting with a break in on the upstairs floor,” Robert Kinney said.
Kinney is the owner of Kinney Recruiting, a legal headhunting business that has worked out of the downtown office for the past 16 years. He said he’s always felt safe there.
“Criminality hasn’t really been a problem,” he said.
That is until two weeks ago. On March 14, Kinney said someone smashed his office’s second floor window in.
“He’s probably stolen $5,000 worth of laptops and other things,” he said.
Shattered glass is all the business was left with.
Kinney said his security cameras weren’t working that night, and he reported the crime to the Austin Police Department (APD).
“The individual officers were amazing at getting the building cleared,” Kinney said. “Clearing the building, letting us know what they thought they could do.”
Kinney said he made sure his security cameras were working after that first burglary.
“Then Sunday morning, actually, our friend came back,” he said.
On March 17, a man dressed in black, wielding a heavy metal object, shattered Kinney’s sense of security again.
“Well, he tried every single window. He broke these two windows and made a heck of a mess,” he said.
When the man came back a third time, on March 19, Kinney said he started to get concerned about APD’s response.
“It took a week to assign a detective. It’s not clear how serious they are about clearing what amounts to a petty crime,” Kinney said.
KVUE reached out to APD, but the department declined to speak on camera. It said in a statement that as soon as something is reported to APD, the report is routed to the Investigative Unit’s queue.
APD said several things could impact a case’s timeframe, including the way it was reported, the unit’s caseload and supervisor availability.
APD said it tries to assign a case within six work days, where investigators will start to collect evidence.
However, Kinney said he’s not sure how much of a priority non-violent cases like his are.
“It concerns me about other people, too. You know, the building over here was burglarized – could’ve been the same gentleman,” he explained. “There was a building off Baylor, I think, that was hit, too.”
Kinney said he would like to see more officers patrolling the downtown area in the future.
APD said anyone experiencing anything similar should make sure they have a working alarm system and security cameras that can record.
APD said to also write down serial numbers of things like laptops or TVs and to keep valuables like cash out of sight. Business owners can also take extra steps like reinforcing doors and making sure their businesses are well-lit.
