o no Tannenbaum
Not the most wonderful time of the year: Houston tops the nation in burglaries;December worst month
Just in time for the holidays, a recent survey of government crime information has ranked Houston at the top of its list for nation's most burgled cities.
For a round-up of "insecure" urban areas, home security provider SimpliSafe combed through the FBI's Uniform Crime Report database to find that Space City easily outpaced other big city suspects like New York and Los Angeles with more than 27,000 reported break-ins.
Here's how the top six shaped up.
- Houston — 27,459 burglaries
- Chicago — 26,420 burglaries
- Phoenix — 18,666 burglaries
- Los Angeles — 17,264 burglaries
- Detroit — 15,994 burglaries
- New York — 15,159 burglaries
While recent rates are no where nearly as high as they were in 1988 when Houston saw 50,000 cases, crime data on the Houston Police Department's website shows that burglaries have slowly crept up since the city reached a low point of 23,000 in 1998.
Delving deeper in the HPD numbers, CultureMap discovered — to no great surprise — that December is the Bayou City burglar's favorite 31 days of the year. In 2011, for example, thieves were roughly 60 percent more likely to strike in December that they were during the typically quiet month of February.
As such, Houston police are reminding citizens to keep their homes well-lit during these dark winter nights. Also refrain from placing wrapped gifts under the "O Tannenbaum" if it's near a large window.
Click here for HPD's annual holiday safety brochure.
Transitional themes, neutral stone countertops, wood details, and sleek finishes are in this year. Photo by Joshua Caldwell / PureHaven Homes, Clayton Vance Architecture