D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray’s home was burglarized sometime early Monday while he was asleep upstairs, he said Tuesday.
Gray, a resident of the Hillcrest community in Ward 7, said he came downstairs late Monday morning and heard a noise “that sounded like traffic.” In the basement, he found that a window facing busy Branch Avenue Southeast “was completely gone.”
A burglar tossed a “boulder” through the window, entered the home and stole a stereo receiver, the chairman said. Gray, who was sleeping at the time, said he never heard a thing. And the ADT Security System protecting his home did not include a motion detector that might have prevented the theft.
The chairman, who lives alone, said his home was swarming with police officers on Memorial Day. The burglary closure rate, however, is less than 20 percent, and police on Tuesday did not report any arrests.
The Metropolitan Police Department watches over Mayor Adrian Fenty’s home 24 hours a day. But Gray, the second most powerful elected D.C. official, said he has no interest in receiving similar protection.
Between Jan. 1 and May 26 there was one burglary, one case of sexual abuse, two robberies without a gun, four thefts from auto and three stolen autos reported within 1,000 feet of Gray’s home address, according to MPD statistics.
Gray isn’t the first council member to be victimized. Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry’s home was burglarized last September while he was traveling. Yvette Alexander of Ward 7 had her purse stolen during a stop at a gas station. And burglars were sent scurrying from the home of at-large Councilwoman Carol Schwartz some 15 years ago thanks to her motion-detecting security system.
