The has a simple favor to ask you. If you’re leaving your car outside, lock the doors.
Police have seen a rash of car burglaries lately, according to Chief Dwight Baird, and in every case, he said, the cars in question were left unlocked. He said he has sent alumni from the Citizens Police Academy and Police Explorers into affected neighborhoods with flyers urging people to lock their doors.
In a recent post to the Oswego Police Facebook page, officers repeated the same plea.
“Not one of the burglary to motor vehicles or criminal trespass to vehicles has occurred when the vehicle has been secured or the valuables have been removed,” police wrote. “In addition, please close your garage doors as well. Don’t become a victim of opportunity.”
If you see any suspicious activity, call 911 and report it, police said.
Here are some examples just from Tuesday, as taken from Oswego Police reports. In all cases, the cars were unlocked, police said.
- Someone stole personal items valued at $23 from a vehicle parked in the 400 block of Deerfield Drive sometime before 6:20 a.m., police said.
- Someone entered two unlocked vehicles in the 200 block of Ashcroft Court and stole an iPod valued at $300 sometime before 7 a.m., police said.
- Someone stole about $30 in change from a vehicle parked in the 200 block of Ashcroft Lane sometime before 7:32 a.m., police said.
- Someone stole a radar detector and $15 from a car in the 100 block of Linden Drive sometime before 7:35 a.m., police said.
- Someone stole $8 in change from a car parked in the 500 block of Woodland Way sometime before 12:03 p.m., police said.
- Someone took a GPS unit from a vehicle parked in the 400 block of Windsor Drive sometime before 4:50 p.m., police said.
Our side gate was wide open yesterday morning. Thankfully the kids had locked the shed. ( I've heard of one instance in Lakeview where they had gone into the shed.)
I started to leave the outside lights on as a result. I am suprised most people don;t even use the porch lights.
Brilliant
If you've ever had your car broken in to then you're in for a few weeks dealing with insurance companies, probably take a least one day off of work to get your car fixed, and then pay higher insurance rates. Unless it's just a broken window then the bodywork can be into the thousands, like the time someone literally pullted my window back away from my car to gain entry. How about the cost of a new door along with the associated repainting to have everything matchup again. Try about $4,000 for that 'petty theft' alone. But the main issue is that I expect my family to be safe in our house. Any idiot that wants to start prowling around outside is not going to have the benefit of the doubt as to what they are doing. Go ahead punks, keep going at it until you hit the wrong house.
Why do we have to waste the time of the police if you do not take the simple step of protecting your property by securing the doors and removing/hiding objects of opportunity? Look at it this way. You car is broken in to because you left your purse on the seat at LA Fitness (If I had a dollar for every time I see this, which is every time I am there) this means an officer has to respond to your cries for help. This takes him off the street so he cannot pull over the guy doing 60 down RT 34, who is actually endangering people's lives. Really, let us stop wasting the time of our police department and either take the steps to protect yourself from these petty criminals or just don't bother calling if it happens to you.