Thieves Seen Stealing Lightbulbs In Downtown Tulsa Neighborhood

A Downtown Tulsa neighborhood is having trouble with thieves stealing lightbulbs.

One woman says she drove up and witnessed a man taking a lightbulb out of her porch light and managed to capture a photo of him.

“I’ve always been one leave the lights on, leave the lights on,” said Trena Workman, “But they’ve been pretty persistent about stealing our lightbulbs.”

Trena Workman says she was coming home from the gym this morning when she saw a man outside of her home unscrewing a lightbulb from her outdoor light.

She said she then watched him go into the alleyway between her and her neighbor's house.

“I was kind of mad about it because we've had a lot of light bulbs stolen that we just stopped putting one in there so I stuck my car in that little hole right there and told him to put it back,” said Workman.

Workman says the man put the lightbulb back in her neighbor's light then jumped over her car and started running, but she managed to capture a photo of him as he was getting away.

“He had a sack, kind of like a generic plastic sack that you get at the store and it looked like it was full of light bulbs, so he may have just been going up and down through our addition here and getting lightbulbs,” said Workman.

Workman says this isn't the first time her home has been targeted. She says burglaries are not uncommon in their neighborhood and several people have had things vandalized or stolen from their porches.

“I don’t know what their purpose is but it’s kind of like a squirrel cage. We are constantly trying to figure out how to keep them out and they are constantly trying to get in,” said Workman.

Workman says people have stolen her lightbulbs before and someone even broke into her home earlier this year while she was sleeping.

“That was the worst feeling that we were upstairs, and this was going on downstairs,” said Workman.

Tulsa Police say burglars often look for dark areas when trying to scope out a home, or in this case, they could be trying to create their own darkness.

“Things like light will keep a burglar from burglarizing a residence because they don’t want to be seen,” said Tulsa Police Officer Jeanne Pierce.

Officer Pierce says burglars will often check out the neighborhood before they make their move, so it's also important to make sure they don't know your schedule.

“We just ask people to vary their routine so if someone is watching your home or if they are scouting or casing the neighborhood they don't expect you not to be there,” said Officer Pierce.

Tulsa Police say it's also always good to invest in a security system or security cameras just as a precaution.

“There’s a variety of different things that you could do to try to prevent becoming a victim but obviously if a burglar wants to take advantage of a situation, they’re going to do this regardless of how you prepare for it,” said Officer Pierce.