Perry Police Chief Ramon Gonzalez is urging residents to be on the lookout for a man who entered three homes through unlocked windows last week, dumping women’s handbags and making off with an unknown amount of cash.

“It is unusual in a small town for that kind of activity,” Gonzalez said of the town of about 800 people. “But a small town doesn’t make you immune (to crime).”

The suspect is described as a white man about 5 feet, 9 inches tall, with brown hair and brown eyes and weighing about 170 pounds. He is thought to be in his late 20s or early 30s and was wearing black fitted gloves and khaki pants when the incidents occurred between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. Thursday.

Two homes, on Fourth and Oak streets, were robbed while the residents were sleeping. A third, vacant home on Main Street also was broken into. In what Gonzalez thinks was the last incident of the night, a fourth burglary was attempted before a woman noticed the suspect on her back porch. She alerted police around 3:30 a.m.

“We thought we had a window peeper and we didn’t discover the break-ins until people called in between 7, 7:45 a.m. (Thursday),” Gonzalez said. “(All the burglaries) were done where there was shelter in the back so you couldn’t be seen from the street.”

Gonzalez and Jefferson County Sheriff Roy Dunnaway encourage residents to immediately report suspicious activity.

“This bothers us when this kind of stuff happens,” Dunnaway said. “Most of the small towns don’t have too much of a problem with burglaries, and very seldom do we have home invasions when people are in them.”