Community on high alert after home invasion

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Police are stepping up patrols in one Lexington neighborhood after a home invasion Sunday.

It happened on Chestnut Ridge Drive — a neighborhood that has seen crime before.

Police say a woman came home from the store, pulled into her garage and a man forced his way inside her home at gunpoint.

The woman’s children were in a bedroom, but her mother was in the living room, according to investigators. They say the man shoved his gun into the grandmother’s stomach, stole her purse then ran off.

Police say no one was hurt, but many people who live along Chestnut Ridge Drive are shaken.

Police say there have been 12 reports of burglaries within a half-mile of the home burglarized Sunday night. They say eight involved unknown suspects and four involved people known to the homeowners.

Police say they are still searching for the suspect in the latest burglary.