Residents in San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood said they have been hit hard by a recent round of burglaries, carjackings and armed robberies, and they plan to patrol the neighborhood and to arm themselves in response.

"I don't want to be alarming," resident "Tammy" said. "We're really pragmatic people. But this has been really terrifying for the whole neighborhood."

Tammy, like many of her neighbors, does not want her identity revealed in NBC Bay Area's report partly because word on their Nextdoor group is the criminals are warning people they know where they live and will return.

The crimes started in Evergreen with what are called kick-in burglaries. That's when the crooks get a running start and try to kick down a door so they can ransack the home.

Neighbors now said it is happening in Willow Glen.

"We've been really, really scared the last couple of nights," Tammy said. "We haven't been able to sleep, and even considered buying a gun."

The Willow Glen neighborhood watch group provided NBC Bay Area with a video that shows what appears to be a carjacking involving a stolen blue minivan. The same van was seen Thursday night when it was abandoned after a crime spree.

"Some neighbors are driving around the neighborhood, doing their own little watch to see if they can see something to stop an incident from happening," said Eric Greenwood, Willow Glen neighborhood. "Not sure how safe it is, but at least they're proactively doing something."

San Jose police said they need to run a crime analysis to see if there's really a spike in crime in Willow Glen. But the locals said they do not need a scientific study to show why they have been terrified the last few days.

Police also said neighbors in the area should work in conjunction with their crime prevention unit and do not recommend people confronting suspected criminals who might be armed.