A home in Lake Highlands was recently targeted by burglars pretending to be arborists.

Dick Barr was alone Saturday when a man knocked on his door and told him he was there to trim some of the neighbor’s trees crossing over the property line.

As Dick related to CBS News Texas, this explanation seemed legitimate, and he followed the man to the backyard, where the man kept him busy talking.

“He had all these stories. It was pretty amazing. He was married and had all these kids,” Dick said.

Approximately 15 minutes later, the alleged tree-trimmer suddenly ended their conversation and took off with his partner in a black Chevy Tahoe. Dick went back to his home and realized that he had been scammed.

The two suspects had allegedly made off with several pieces of jewelry belonging to Dick’s wife.

“You have this feeling of helplessness. I couldn’t sleep at all that night,” Shippy Barr said.

Footage from Barr’s security camera revealed that while Dick was chatting with one man behind the house, another man had slipped in through the back patio door.

The alleged thieves have been linked to burglaries in the neighborhood and across the state using the same M.O.

For instance, a homeowner in the Upper Kirby neighborhood of Houston was targeted earlier this month, allegedly losing several thousand dollars’ worth of property.

The incident in Dallas appears to have occurred in District 10, which Council Member Kathy Stewart represents.

The new year has gotten off to a rocky start, with 20 burglaries already reported as of January 2 within city limits, according to the City’s crime analytics dashboard. In 2023, a total of 6,044 were clocked, with a double-digit spike year over year occurring in November, as previously covered in The Dallas Express.

Persistently high crime rates have been seen across Dallas as the Dallas Police Department continues to labor under a longstanding staffing shortage. It currently only fields around 3,000 officers, although a City report previously recommended that a jurisdiction the size of Dallas needs about 4,000 officers to properly maintain public safety.

The officer shortage has been especially felt in Downtown Dallas, which logs significantly more criminal activity than Fort Worth’s city center. A special police unit and private security guards patrol the latter in a decades-long public-private partnership.