Alexander County, Illinois, Sheriff Tim Brown knocked on wood, thankful that so far, he had not received a single theft report due to flooding in his county.

He's not out of the woods yet, with the Mississippi River receding and floodwaters still in many places in rural Alexander County. And there were reports of theft after the flood in 2011.

"The last time, we had a little bit of that here," he said. "Can we stop it 100 percent? We can't stop any crime 100 percent."

Brown certainly is trying. The Alexander County Sheriff's Department cataloged as many people as possible who were evacuating the area.

Brown had officers check vacant homes multiple times a day.

The Illinois State Police and Illinois Department of Natural Resources are helping with regular patrols.

Alexander County was not alone.

Jackson County, Illinois, Sheriff's deputies were checking evacuating homes in their county as many as six times a day, and Lt. Jennifer Lindsey said it could have been more often than that.

There were two theft reports from Grand Tower, Illinois, and the bottoms area -- one of fuel and the other of beer.

"Very minor," Lindsey said. "We had pretty heavy patrols."

The Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department reported minor thefts in the Allenville area -- between three and five instances in which items such as batteries were stolen from vehicles.

The department also conducted regular patrols, some by boat, and had help from the National Guard.

"We hoped, between our presence and the National Guard, that we deterred any incident from happening," Capt. Ruth Ann Dickerson said.

Sheriff's departments in Union County, Illinois; Scott County; and Perry County, Missouri, have had no theft reports following evacuations.

Union County Sheriff Scott Harvel said many residents called him, asking deputies to check on their homes, and he obliged with bulked-up patrols.

"We checked many, from county line to county line," he said. "We were fortunate that our levees held. I'm hoping we can return to normal."

Perry County Sheriff Gary Schaaf said people tried to sneak past road-closure signs.

"We were checking people that weren't supposed to be there," Schaaf said. "We did stop a number of people from snooping around. We wrote them tickets for bypassing a road closure. Word got out pretty quick."

Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter said he was not aware of any thefts in Commerce, Missouri, where the majority of flooding was concentrated in his county.

He said his department had arrested two suspects Thursday who were awaiting charges for the theft of a trailer, air compressor and hand tools.

The arrest was due to the work of detective Barry Morgan, who specializes in rural crime.

While the efforts of law enforcement acted as an effective deterrent, Lindsey said she saw more people who wanted to help their neighbors than take advantage of their plight.

"The residents worked really well together," she said. "They really seemed to pull everybody together and lean on each other."

bkleine@semissourian.com

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