SAN ANTONIO - Angelina Bouldin often uses the alarm system inside her house. Bouldin also has a four-legged security team; Halle inside and Big Boy outside the house in the Canyon Crossing subdivision on the West Side.
Somehow, someone still managed to get away with the family's silver 2000 Crown Victoria. The car was stolen out of the driveway before dawn.
"It's scary," Bouldin told News 4 WOAI. "You sleep at home at night and someone's in your front yard stealing your stuff. It's scary."
Bouldin says her family has had many problems since moving into the neighborhood.
"We've been robbed and vandalized four times in the past three years," she said.
Some of her neighbors say they have been victimized too.
"It's been really bad with people beating on the doors in the middle of the night," explained Jim Alexander.
He said it's been weeks since it happened to him and a neighbor. The grandfather said someone banged on the door of his daughter’s home possibly trying to kick the door in.
"My daughter's boyfriend hollered through the door and said, 'I got a gun!' They finally left, but it took the sheriff's department 45 minutes to come make a report," Alexander said.
Since then, his family has installed a home alarm system.
People in the subdivision want the Bexar County Sheriff's Department to patrol more often, hoping it will improve safety in a neighborhood homeowners love.
"No -- we can't leave this is home," insisted Bouldin.
Alexander told us he sleeps with one eye open with neighbors looking out for one another. But they think this rash of crime is definitely an issue for armed officers.
"I understand they are probably really strapped for people, but something needs to happen or somebody's going to get hurt or killed," said Alexander.
Bexar County Sheriff Department spokesman Lou Antu said there’s a real need to step up patrols in many parts of the county and 23 more deputies will be on the streets because of a restructuring plan.
