The reported break-in at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning, had the ring of familiarity with Tammy Adams.

Adams, owner of All Wound Up on Fulton Street, had a similar experience in late August on the heels of Hurricane Katrina while the store's alarm system had no power.

At that time, she operated from a store on Howard Street, a block away from the Greenwood Police Department.

Burglars hit her business, All Wound Up, on Howard Street twice. "That's why we moved," she said.

The first time, a burglar or burglars knocked down the store's back door and escaped with about $5,000 in high-end toys and other items, such as a computer laptop, electric drills and a hand truck.

She checked around in the days that followed and found some of her store's merchandise, still bearing All Wound Up stickers, for sale at a pawn shop in the city.

The police told Adams they had no proof that the man who brought the items into the shop had taken them, she said.
Adams recalled a police detective told her that the man who sold the items to the pawn shop might have found them on the street.

To date, she has retrieved about $130 worth of merchandise.

But the final straw for Adams occurred in September. After another break-in, she packed up and moved to a location at 207 Fulton St. that doesn't have a back door, she said.
Adams has little hope of recovering her losses. "The police told me that they wouldn't be able to find it."

Despite Adams' story, Greenwood Police Chief Henry Harris says downtown isn't regarded as a high-crime part of the city.

The chief couldn't provide statistics on the number of burglaries, robberies, car thefts and assaults for the past six months for downtown.

Harris said the figures are available, but not in stand-alone form.

Merchants, shoppers and tourists have no need to fear, the chief said. He said his department has allocated enough officers for downtown.

"We have one to two officers patrolling downtown," Harris said. "During the Christmas shopping season, we will have increased patrols for the protection of shoppers and merchants."

Additional police patrols will begin after Thanksgiving and continue through the first part of January, Harris said.

Cindy Tyler, owner of the Mississippi Gift Co. on Howard Street, said her business has not had any problems similar to the ones that Adams has experienced.

"My corner is pretty busy. Being a block from The Alluvian, which employs a private security guard, may also help," she said.

Tyler said her store has an alarm system.

She thanked the police for also patrolling the area regularly. "On behalf of the police department, when we work late at night, we see them drive the block," Tyler said.

The Rev. Glenn Seefeld, pastor at Greenwood's First United Metho-dist Church, said his church has not had any problems similar to those at Immaculate Heart or All Wound Up. "We've been blessed," he said.