JACKSON – Although no arrests have been made following a string of break-ins that occurred Jan. 19 on the eastern end of Northampton County, Sheriff Jack Smith said the ongoing investigation is making progress.

“We’re still following up on some leads in these cases,”

Smith said yesterday (Friday) morning.

Captain Patrick Jacobs of the Northampton Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division said deputies responded to four breaking and entering calls on the east side of the county in the early morning hours of Jan. 19. The breaking and entering’s included a residence, a vehicle, a hunting club, and two utility trailers.

He added that criminal investigators executed a search warrant in the afternoon hours of Jan. 19 where several items of evidence were recovered that are believed to possibly have been stolen from the breaking and entering cases reported by the victims earlier that same day.

“The obstacle we’re facing in this investigation is that the victims of these crimes can only provide us with a general description of the items that were stolen,” Smith said. “Without identifying information, it’s hard to say that the items we recovered after executing that search warrant on Jan. 19 are the exact same ones stolen earlier that same morning.”

Smith encouraged Northampton citizens to record information on the items they own, particularly weapons, flat screen televisions, cell phones, video games, microwaves and other small appliances.

“Those are the items that thieves are looking for because they’re easy to carry and can be quickly sold,” Smith said. “Our citizens can help out by writing down the make, model and serial numbers of those types of items. That helps us to track down these items and if recovered helps us return them to the owner. We keep a database of stolen/recovered items, but without accurate identifying information we don’t know who to return those items to.”

Smith said another way for citizens to keep track of what they own is to take photos and/or videos of those items.

He also added that if any county citizen has been the recent victim of battery theft (to include vehicle, commercial or those for a lawnmower) over the last 90 days to call the Northampton Sheriff’s Office (252-534-2611) and ask for Captain Jacobs.

As for the recent rash of breaking and entering cases, Jacobs also reported that these same individuals may be involved in similar cases in nearby Herford County.

“It is believed that the same people are involved in these numerous breaking and entering’s that all occurred in a span of a few hours and all within close proximity of one another,” Jacobs noted.

Jacobs said Sheriff Smith and his investigators have been in contact with Hertford County authorities to work closely together in solving these break-in’s and others possibly in Hertford County.