TEXAS COMPUTER EQIPMENT STOLEN Many crimes go unsolved in Waco, nationwide: "e"

For some, the numbers hit closer to home

After 12 burglaries in the last four years, Jamie Grisham is not so surprised anymore to be woken up in the middle of the night by an officer telling her that her family’s Lake Air Drive bookkeeping business has been burglarized.

Denison & Grisham Bookkeeping & Tax Services, as well as A & C Computers, occupy the building at 407 Lake Air Drive. Grisham said thieves have taken thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment, the building’s electric meter and the central air compressor.

Mark Scott, the computer business’s owner, said police have solved one of the 12 break-ins but that prosecutors chose to release the man because he agreed to testify against the group to which he was selling the stolen computer equipment.

“We’re past the angry part because that didn’t do any good,” Grisham said.

Both Scott and Grisham are frustrated with police. They’ve caught suspects on tape and have believed suspects left their fingerprints, but most of the crimes remain unsolved.

“I’ve had police officers tell me flat out, ‘Unless we catch them coming in the door, we’re not going to catch them,’ ” Scott said.

So, they have had to inconvenience themselves.

“You have to change the way you do business,” Grisham said. “We can’t stay up here late, so we have to work more weekends.”

The business now has an alarm system, video surveillance and a heavier door.

“The solution is to make your business as sturdy and unattractive as you can,” Scott said. “But then you remember you still have to attract customers, too.”