Buffalo Metro Crime Watch: Burglaries and Car Thefts, Week of July 20 – July 26, 2026
One minute. That is how long it took State Police to go from a larceny report to an arrest on a Lockport burglary this past Saturday night — and the man taken in was charged with a felony, the only felony property charge anywhere in the Troop A blotters all week. The seven days from July 20 through July 26 brought five thefts from inside buildings across the barracks that cover Erie, Niagara, Genesee and Orleans counties, four of them ending in arrests, plus thirteen burglar alarms and a run of fraud complaints. Troopers logged 405 in-area incidents in all. Every case below comes straight from the daily blotters, with the original report attached so you can read it yourself.
Everyone named below has been charged, not convicted. A charge is an accusation, and every person identified in these reports is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. Juveniles are never named here; the State Police redact them from the public blotter in any case.
This Week at a Glance
| Date & time | Town | What happened | Status | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon Jul 20, 11:27 AM* | Ashford (Boston barracks) | License plates reported lost or stolen | Closed/cleared | |
| Tue Jul 21, 7:00 PM | Amherst (Clarence barracks) | Bicycle reported stolen | Investigation pending | |
| Tue Jul 21, 7:20 PM | Town of Batavia | Fraud reported | Investigation pending | |
| Wed Jul 22, 11:15 AM | Town of Clarence | Fraud reported | Investigation pending | |
| Wed Jul 22, 11:56 AM | Akron (Clarence barracks) | Fraud reported | Investigation pending | |
| Wed Jul 22, 12:42 PM | Pavilion (Batavia barracks) | Fraud reported | Investigation pending | |
| Thu Jul 23, 12:20 PM | Village of Fredonia | Larceny from a building; man ticketed for petit larceny | Adult arrest | |
| Thu Jul 23, 1:29 PM | Town of Lockport | Larceny from a building; man ticketed for petit larceny | Adult arrest | |
| Fri Jul 24, 12:43 PM | Gerry (Fredonia barracks) | Larceny from a building; man ticketed for petit larceny | Adult arrest | |
| Fri Jul 24, 2:37 PM | Town of Niagara | Larceny from a building; man ticketed for petit larceny | Adult arrest | |
| Fri Jul 24, 4:07 PM | Town of Newstead | Larceny from a building | Investigation pending | |
| Fri Jul 24, 5:34 PM | Town of Clarence | Larceny from a building | Investigation pending | |
| Sat Jul 25, 7:35 PM | Town of Lockport | Larceny from a building; man charged with third-degree burglary (felony) | Adult arrest |
A note on the Status column: “Closed/cleared” means the State Police consider the call resolved — it does not necessarily mean anyone was caught or that property was recovered. “Investigation pending” means the case is still open. Where an arrest appears, the charge is an accusation only. *The Ashford plate report was filed at 11:27 AM Tuesday but logged under the Monday reporting batch; it is dated here to the report window.
Burglaries and Break-Ins
This was the busiest week for building thefts the metro area has seen in this series — five in seven days, four cleared by arrest. And unlike recent weeks, one of them carried a felony.
A felony charge and a one-minute arrest in Lockport
At 7:35 PM on Saturday, July 25, troopers were called to a larceny from a building in the Town of Lockport. The blotter shows an arrest one minute later, at 7:36 PM: a 37-year-old Lockport man charged with third-degree burglary under Penal Law §140.20 — illegal entry with intent to commit a crime, a Class D felony — along with a count of petit larceny. That felony count is the most serious property charge in the entire Troop A region this week, and unlike most of the arrests below, this defendant was routed to central arraignment rather than released on a ticket. Third-degree burglary is not about what was taken; it is about entering a building unlawfully with the intent to steal, which is a different and heavier accusation than a simple shoplift.
Source: NYSP Troop A report, July 25, 2026 (archived PDF) — Incident NY2600916361
Two more Lockport-area arrests within minutes
Speed was the theme of the week. On Thursday, July 23, a larceny from a building in the Town of Lockport was reported at 1:29 PM; a 45-year-old Lockport man was ticketed for petit larceny at 1:36 PM, seven minutes later, and released on an appearance ticket. The next afternoon, Friday, July 24, troopers out of the Niagara barracks took a building-theft report at 2:37 PM and had a 59-year-old Niagara Falls man ticketed for petit larceny by 2:43 PM — six minutes. Both cases closed the same hour they opened.
Source: NYSP Troop A report, July 23, 2026 (archived PDF) — Incident NY2600906243 and NYSP Troop A report, July 24, 2026 (archived PDF) — Incident NY2600911232
Two open cases in Newstead and Clarence
Not every case closed quickly. Friday, July 24 also brought two building thefts that remain under investigation: one in the Town of Newstead at 4:07 PM, and one in the Town of Clarence at 5:34 PM, filed by the Clarence barracks about ninety minutes apart. Neither report names a suspect, and both were still open when the blotter published.
Source: NYSP Troop A report, July 24, 2026 (archived PDF) — Incident NY2600911532 and NYSP Troop A report, July 24, 2026 (archived PDF) — Incident NY2600912087
Where the burglar alarms went off
Troopers responded to thirteen burglar-alarm calls in the coverage area over the seven days, and every one was closed and cleared — the usual signature of a false trip, a pet, an unlatched door, or a fumbled keypad. By town:
- Town of Batavia and Town of Niagara — 2 calls each
- Lockport, Alden, Wheatfield, Pembroke, Newstead, Kendall, Gaines, Clarendon and Boston — 1 call each
The after-midnight hours stayed relatively calm, but not silent. Thursday, July 23 opened with a 2:12 AM alarm in the Town of Batavia and a 3:58 AM alarm in Clarendon out near Albion; Friday, July 24 had a 4:25 AM alarm in Newstead; and the earliest of the week was a 12:15 AM call in the Town of Niagara on Tuesday. None turned into a reported break-in.
Car Thefts and Vehicle Break-Ins
If last week was quiet on vehicles, this week was quieter. Inside the metro coverage area there was no stolen vehicle, no theft from a vehicle, and no ignition tampering in the blotters — just two loosely vehicle-related items.
A plate report and a stolen bicycle
The Boston barracks logged a lost-or-stolen license plate report at 11:27 AM Tuesday, July 21, out in the Town of Ashford, and closed it. Separately, the Clarence barracks took a stolen-bicycle report in the Town of Amherst at 7:00 PM the same day, which remains under investigation. That is the entire vehicle-and-wheels ledger for the week in-area — a genuinely light stretch, and a good one.
Stolen plates are worth a word even when there is only one. A missing plate rarely stays a plate problem; plates get moved onto another car to disguise it, so a plate taken off your bumper can surface weeks later as a toll notice or a red-light-camera ticket in your name. If yours go missing, report them to police and to DMV the same day.
Source: NYSP Troop A report, July 21, 2026 (archived PDF) — Incident NY2600897786 and NYSP Troop A report, July 21, 2026 (archived PDF) — Incident NY2600899625
Commercial Crime Watch
Fraud was the story on the commercial side this week — four separate reports in three days, all still open.
Four fraud reports, all under investigation
The complaints came in a tight cluster: the Town of Batavia at 7:20 PM Tuesday, July 21; the Town of Clarence at 11:15 AM and the village of Akron at 11:56 AM on Wednesday, July 22; and Pavilion at 12:42 PM the same Wednesday. The blotter does not detail the nature of each — fraud on these reports can mean anything from a bad check to an online scam to unauthorized charges — but four in the span of a few days is a reminder that the quiet-looking crimes travel by phone and keyboard, not through your front door. Every one of the four was still under investigation at publication.
Source: NYSP Troop A report, July 21, 2026 (archived PDF) — Incident NY2600899304, Incident NY2600903966, Incident NY2600901756, Incident NY2600902105 (all archived PDFs)
The patrol numbers behind the cases
Beyond the reported crimes, troopers ran 32 property checks and fielded 37 suspicious-activity calls in the coverage area this week — the highest suspicious-call count in recent editions. Those calls almost always start with a resident or business owner who noticed something and picked up the phone, and they are a fair gauge of how many eyes were on the street. Officers also made six DWI arrests across the in-area barracks.
Source: NYSP Troop A daily blotters, July 20–26, 2026
Beyond the Metro
Chautauqua County saw its own run of building-theft arrests this week, all misdemeanors. Two stand out from the Fredonia station: a 62-year-old Cherry Creek man ticketed for petit larceny after a larceny from a building in the village of Fredonia at 12:20 PM Thursday, July 23, and a 36-year-old Jamestown man ticketed for petit larceny in the Town of Gerry at 12:43 PM Friday, July 24. Both were released on appearance tickets. Neither is inside the Buffalo metro, but together they round out a week in which building thefts, not car crimes, dominated the western blotters.
Source: NYSP Troop A report, July 23, 2026 (archived PDF) — Incident NY2600905750 and NYSP Troop A report, July 24, 2026 (archived PDF) — Incident NY2600910665
The Week by the Numbers
| Category | Count |
|---|---|
| Suspicious activity / person / vehicle calls | 37 |
| Property checks | 32 |
| Burglar-alarm responses | 13 |
| DWI arrests | 6 |
| Larceny from a building (in-area) | 5 |
| Fraud reports | 4 |
| License plates lost or stolen | 1 |
| Bicycle stolen | 1 |
| Stolen vehicles / thefts from vehicles (in-area) | 0 |
| Third-degree burglary charges | 1 |
| Total in-area incidents logged | 405 |
These totals cover only what the State Police Troop A stations handle — Clarence, Lockport, Niagara, Albion, Batavia, Boston and Alden. City police departments including Buffalo, Niagara Falls and the City of Lockport report separately, so the real metro-wide totals are considerably higher.
Source: NYSP Troop A daily blotters, July 20–26, 2026
What This Week’s Cases Mean for Your Locks
Five building thefts, and four of them cleared before the shift changed — that Saturday arrest in Lockport happened inside a minute. The thing to sit with is that word: burglary. It means someone got inside. Not a smashed window every time, just a door that opened when it should not have. That is the exact gap a good lock and a habit of turning it close. And thirteen alarms that all came back clear? That is not thirteen wasted trips. That is a deterrent doing its job before anyone got in.
- Treat “burglary” as an entry problem, not a window problem. The felony charge in Lockport this week was about unlawful entry, and most building thefts follow a door that was open or a lock that was easy. If a key is unaccounted for — a former tenant, a lost fob, a spare that never came back — rekeying the lock cancels every old key at once for a fraction of the cost of new hardware.
- Test the alarm before you need it. Thirteen burglar alarms sounded and all thirteen cleared. Confirm your contacts, sensors and strike still line up — a door that no longer latches squarely is the most common reason an alarm trips for nothing, and the most common way a lock fails when it counts.
- Reinforce the strike, not just the deadbolt. A strong deadbolt seated in a jamb held by half-inch screws is only as strong as those screws. Our residential locksmith team can fit a reinforced strike with three-inch screws in one visit.
- Keep house and car keys off the same ring. A stolen bike this week is a small reminder that thieves take what is easy and out in the open. If a key goes missing with a vehicle, get car key replacement and have the old one cancelled so it can never turn your ignition again.
- Handle missing plates and keys the same day. Report a lost plate to police and DMV immediately, and if a fob is gone too, our automotive locksmith service can reprogram the vehicle so the old fob no longer starts it.
- Landlords: control the keys, not just the doors. Turnover is when keys quietly multiply. A master key system for landlords lets you rekey one unit without touching the rest of the building. Locked out or need a door secured tonight? Our emergency locksmith line runs around the clock, or call (716) 803-2934.
For business owners
- Decide who can open which door with a master key system installation — useful when staff turnover means keys leave with people.
- Get an honest read on your entry points from our commercial locksmith team.
- A misaligned storefront door invites both false alarms and easy entry; storefront door repair fixes both at once.
- Swap keys for credentials you can revoke instantly with access control.
- Keep exits code-compliant and secure with proper push bar installation.
- Worn closers and sagging hinges undo good hardware — book commercial door repair before the alarm company calls at 2 AM.
We’ll keep reading the blotters so you don’t have to. Stay locked, Buffalo.
Next edition: Crime Watch, July 27–August 2
Sources: every incident above is drawn from the New York State Police Troop A daily media blotters for July 20–26, 2026, published at publicapps.troopers.ny.gov/Media_Reports. An excerpt of the original report is linked under each item. All individuals named have been charged only; a charge is an accusation, and every person is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.