RAYTOWN, Mo. — Several homes, businesses and cars in Raytown are being targeted by thieves, and surveillance video and photos appear to show a group of young men behind it all.
The thieves appear to be no older than teenagers and have been seen carrying large electronics down the street. A witness snapped photos of the men after calling police.
One homeowner tells FOX4 the electronics they’re carrying appear to be the same ones that were stolen from her home earlier that same day. She came home from work to find her door had been kicked in, and she was missing electronics, jewelry and prescription medicine.
“It’s definitely hard, and it’s been a roller coaster of emotions these past couple of days,” said the woman who didn’t want her named to be used. “We’ve spent today, this afternoon just trying to clean up the messes that they’ve created.”
She has since updated her home’s doors, windows and security system but said she won’t feel comfortable again until the people responsible are caught.
“Very violated, very violated. When someone goes into your home and shifts through your personal belongings, there’s no words but ‘distraught,’” she said.
A Raytown business owner also caught teens this week that were dressed similarly going through cars outside her business.
“They’re too young to come in here obviously, so they went around the building, and they were rifling through cars if the car wasn’t locked,” Kathy Ramey said.
Ramey has owned Kathy’s Daily Double Bar for more than 30 years. She said she hasn’t had many incidents like this, and she was shocked to see people so young on the surveillance footage.
“They belong in school,” she said. “They belong somewhere not out at 10:30 at night on a school night. They need something better to do than just bum around.”
She, too, wants these teens identified and caught before they cause any more damage.
“Raytown is a good community,” Ramey said. “We’re close knit. We’re working people. We love our community. The police department is awesome. The mayor is awesome. He loves Raytown. We’re close knit, and we would just like to keep it to where we don’t have these problems.”
FOX4 has reached out to Raytown Police for comment on these crimes but have not yet heard back.
Anyone with information on these crimes or the people shown in the surveillance footage should call Raytown Police at 816-737-6020.