Burglars target Greenwood Road businesses; owners call for increased police presence

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - The owners of several businesses along Shreveport's Greenwood Road are speaking out about a string of burglaries in the area.

"They spent a minimum of 40 minutes on camera stealing something underneath a security light off a major road."

Windol Davis says that's what happened about 4 a.m. Sunday at Dirty South automotive shop.

"We definitely think people have been around, and they know what they're coming in after," he added.

His business was not the only target.

"I think they stole from Cummings down there. They stole a Dodge about two lots down. They stole from a guy at I-20 auto sales on the other end of Greenwood Road. Got the guy next door. Got the guy at the towing yard a couple times," Davis recounted.

The thieves who broke into his shop were as heartless as they were bold.

The intruders repeatedly shot and stabbed two dogs there.

"The way the vet told me about it was it was like it's almost as if he went to jump and they just start cutting him."

If it weren't for a camera at a neighboring business. Davis would not have had any visual record of the brazen robbery.

And Van Harris says he had the cameras installed at his business because it too has been hit.

"Man cut the gate on the other side and drove over and drug a truck out from around here. But I didn't have cameras at that time."

Both business owners say the area needs more attention from Shreveport police.

"The typical response times it seems like in this neighborhood is about 45 minutes," Harris observed.

"That just seems a little excessive when we know how many cops are in this neighborhood," Davis said.

"We need some more patrol on this side of town," Harris added.

The hefty price of safety, such as an alarm and on-site security, is sticker shock some small business owners simply cannot afford, Davis said.

Shreveport police responded to the business owner concerns about patrolling by saying that officers constantly patrol Greenwood Road.

Police presence in that area is a given since that stretch of roadway is how officers get from Monkhouse Drive and Jewella Avenue, police Cpl. Angie Willhite said.

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