In the small town of Falls City, almost everyone knows each other. Crime just isn t in their vocabulary.
But the Karnes County sheriff said that s all starting to change.
Sheriff David Jalufka said people used to be able to leave their homes and cars unlocked and not worry about them being burglarized, but he said that s just not the case anymore.
Falls City is the latest town to fall victim to a rash of burglaries in recent weeks. Jalufka said the entire county is also seeing more drug activity.
We re seeing drugs here we ve never seen before. We always worked off of cocaine and marijuana, Jalufka said. Now we ve got ice, we ve got meth, we ve got heroin. We ve never seen this, but we ve also got a lot of truck drivers.
Jalufka said the rise in crime is linked to the major population boom from the exploration of oil from the Eagle Ford Shale.
Within a year we ve gone from 12,000 to 13,000 living in Karnes County to over 27,000, he said.
Aside from the increase in crime, Jalufka said he welcomes the population growth since it has done wonders for the local economy.
He just wants residents to be aware of the new danger that looms.
Don't become a victim. Be like if you go to a big city. Look at your surroundings... pay attention. We're not the small county that we were a year ago, he said.
Jalufka said he s working closely with DPS to curb crime. He said he s also hoping to hire more deputies in the near future.
