HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- The Edrich family said it was on high alert after two men were caught on tape robbing homes in the neighborhood.
"These are young children," Tammy Edrich said. "I mean, I call them children because they look very young on the video surveillance, and they're walking around with guns waving it around like nothing, like it's just another day in the neighborhood."
The men broke into the Edrich's home in the middle of the day, making their way through each room, rummaging through precious belongings and taking off with valuables in a matter of minutes.
"Jewelry, my computer, some valuable stuff that you can't really put a price on," Edrich said. "My grandmother's jewelry, my husband's watch, cameras."
A hidden home camera activated by motion captured every move the men made inside the home.
"If I would've been here, who knows what would have happened," Edrich said. "I might not be standing here today. So, you know, things can be replaced – people can't."
The Best Guard alarm company owner Stewart Brisgel said he's seen crime spike in the Emerald Hills neighborhood.
"I would say that it's three times what it was six months ago," Brisgel said.
Father-in-law George Edrich lives nearby. He said he has also witnessed the wave of violence invading residents, and he blamed parents.
"It makes me wonder where these kids are from, who's raising them," he said. "When they get caught, the parents say what a wonderful kid they have and they couldn't do such things."
He said he hopes that justice will prevail, but he's not confident.
"I have no faith in justice here," he said. "These kids are let loose, and they get to do it over and over and over."
The Edrich family said the men broke in through a back window. They said they have an alarm, but it was off at the time of the robbery.
Anyone with information should call Broward County Crimestoppers at 954-493-TIPS.
Copyright 2008 by NBC6.net. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
