I read the comments earlier this week on the Linwood community Facebook page and I had a hard time believing them.

They were second-hand accounts about a late-night incident where masked men showed up in a Linwood driveway trying car doors to see if they were locked and then moving on to the house itself and tampering with windows and doors, attempting to find a way into the home.

But, you know how the internet is. You can't trust everything you read.

Honestly, the claims seemed so outrageous I found it hard to accept that could have happened. Certainly not in toney, suburban Linwood.

Then I saw a similar Facebook thread on the Margate community page about four men in masks coming onto someone's property at 2 am and trying car door handles and then blatantly attempting to open the back door of the house while the residents were home.

Again, my first reaction was disbelief. I have lived in Margate for about 20 years and I had never heard of any attempted home invasions in Margate.

Stolen cars? Yes. Home invasions? No.

But the account had so much detail and so many similarities to the Linwood post.

Thursday, confirmation about the Linwood stolen car and attempted home break-ins came from Linwood Police on Facebook.

We want to confirm information circulating on social media regarding home break-ins and vehicle thefts. We want to confirm that there was an auto theft in the overnight hours and that there is an active investigation. The vehicle has been recovered and the Linwood Police department is working with our law enforcement partners as we continue our investigation.

I was wrong. Attempted home invasions can and do happen in Linwood, and, I'm sure, in Margate, too.

Linwood Police recommend keeping all doors locked and reporting anything suspicious to police as soon as it happens.

Scary times.

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