INDIANAPOLIS — Break-ins and burglaries are causing serious concerns in Irvington, and a potential thief was caught on camera.
Laurel Harpster and her husband are tired. They're thinking about moving out of Irvington, and they say they hear gunshots every week at their house across from School 88. And, Tuesday morning, chaos spilled over into their backyard.
The Harpsters have worked hard to create a safe space.
"This is our little sanctuary," Laurel Harpster said. "We added some cameras. We installed some security lighting."
Combine that with a home security system and the Harpsters are set up.
"We've never had a single problem, ever," Harpster said.
Until Tuesday morning when Harpster's husband was leaving for work.
"When he pulled out, he saw somebody trying to break into our neighbor's car," she said.
The would-be thief ran and Harpster's husband called her.
"And he said, 'Oh my gosh, make sure everything's locked and secure because somebody's trying to break in the car," Harpster said.
Her husband decided to come home. That's when she got an alert on her phone.
"My cameras that we have in our windows started alerting me that something was being picked up," she said. "I saw a man peering around the corner her and then darted across my driveway."
The man was in their yard at just about the same time Harpster's husband pulled in.
"They could have attacked him," Harpster said. "He's lucky that didn't turn out too differently."
Harpster thinks her lighting set up helped scare the intruder away.
"I don't know if he was going to try to come up onto the porch and break in, but when the light kicked on, he hightailed it out of there," she said.
Now Harpster is hoping for professional help.
"IMPD patrolling a little bit more would be wonderful," she said.
Requests for extra patrols can be made to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. Harpster wants the in her neighborhood because she said things have gotten bad.
"They are constantly coming out and shooting their guns out in the field of this elementary here," she said.
