There have been a rash of home burglaries over the past week, but police say they think the burglars knew what they wanted before breaking in.

“They didn’t ransack the houses,” said Altus Police Chief Mike Patterson of the break-ins this week on N. Hudson and N. Willard. “They went right to the items value. This makes me think they had been in the homes before.”

Patterson urges citizens to not only keep an eye on their neighborhood for suspicious or unusual activity, but to also make their own homes look, sound and give a feel as if someone is home, if there isn’t.

“Burglars know that if they break into a house when someone is home that they can face a sentence of 20 years to life if they are caught. If there is no one home when they break in, the sentence is only 2 to 10 years.”

Patterson also said that citizens aren’t “bothering” the police department by calling in suspicious behavior in their neighborhood. As a matter of fact, he said that many crimes are stopped in the act by concerned citizens calling the police department.