DALLAS — Some neighbors in the Winnetka Heights community in Oak Cliff are on high alert after some armed robberies were reported happening outside residents’ homes.
“I was just coming up to my steps,” Jose Gaytan, 19, explained as he described the suspects who robbed him at gunpoint just before 11 p.m. on Thursday.
“That truck pulled up and then he caught my attention," Gaytan said.
Video shared on RING’s Neighborhood app shows an older-model white pick-up truck stopping outside Gaytan’s house on North Willomet Avenue, just as he was arriving home. Gaytan said a passenger got out of the truck and approached him, as if to ask for directions. He said the unidentified man pulled out a gun. Gaytan told police the driver then exited the vehicle to help the gunman rob him. Within seconds, the driver is seen on video running back to the car and speeding off.
"He just pulled a gun out, and he put it to my head, and started telling me to give him everything I had," Gaytan said.
The unidentified driver and passenger were traveling in an older model, white, Ford F-150, according to Gaytan.
"He took my wallet, and he took my phone. They were going to take my truck, but I didn't let go of my keys."
Some neighbors who have watched the video on the RING app said the truck appears to be the same vehicle that has allegedly been spotted at the scene of some other robberies in the Oak Cliff area recently.
Robberies are among issues Dallas Police Department is targeting as part of its Summer Crime Initiative. This week, DPD also launched the new Dallas Online Reporting System. It is a web-based program that allows residents to report non-emergency crimes 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
“It’s thereby reducing response times for higher priority calls and allowing officers to focus more time on proactive community policing," Assistant Chief Angela Shaw said.
Back in Winnetka Heights, neighbors said they plan on remaining vigilant.
“Nobody thinks that anything it going to happen to them, until it happens," Gaytan said.
The teen is urging everyone to be aware of their surroundings.