Lock Your Doors and Hope They Don't Have Blasters "Han Solo from Star Wars"

Major problem I hear about quite frequently. Good story by a balanced and fair reporter Mr. Carson.

Police urge public to help stop thefts from vehicles

Mike Carson/Journal Pioneer
Summerside police are advising motorists to help them curb the rising number of theft from vehicles occurring throughout the city. Cst. Brett Murphy checks out a van that could be targeted by thieves. A quick look through the side window tells the...
Published on April 6, 2011
Published on April 6, 2011
Mike Carson

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SUMMERSIDE
SUMMERSIDE – Theft from vehicles may be classified as a petty crime by the justice system, but for Summerside police it is a time consuming and costly exercise that could be curtailed if the public followed a few safety guidelines.
Sgt. Sinclair Walker, head of the city police services’ Major Crime Unit, said the department spends large amounts of tax dollars and manpower hours chasing down these thieves. With the cooperation of the public many of these thefts could be avoided.
These thieves easily gain access to a vehicle either because it is unlocked or by breaking out a window. And while many people do place valuables in their trunk, once a thief is in the vehicle they can usually access the trunk via a trunk release button located on the dashboard or in the glove compartment.
“Theft from vehicles is considered petty crime,” he said. “It is petty crime and it isn’t because this is costing a lot of time and a lot of energy for the police department and the public is suffering. They’re losing windows out of their vehicle. They’re losing valuables, like GPS systems, lap tops, pretty well anything that they can sell.”
Drugs are the motivating causes in these thefts.
“We know that the individuals involved are drug addicts and they’re just trying to get a fix,” Walker said. “About three years ago it really became a problem. What we found from time to time was we had certain individuals involved. We end up catching them, charge them and then it would stop for a while. But I found within the last year or so, we had a real run of them.”
Walker said members of the public needs to take on some responsibility in protecting themselves from these thefts.
“Yesterday, we went to some of the parking lots in Summerside and we checked roughly 200 vehicles and we found about 70 of those vehicles were what we consider vulnerable, which means there were items in those vehicles, in plain view that a would-be thief would want,” Walker said. “One of the biggest problems we see is people leaving change in the centre console, ladies leaving their purses in vehicles. GPS (units) are big things. We lost a lot of GPS (units) in the city.”
Walker said people may remove the GPS from view but leave the bracket, tipping off the would-be thief that there is a device in the vehicle.
“In some cases, they’re smashing in the windows and it’s just the window that get damaged,” Walker said. “If they use a rock or something like that it damages the interior, the seats and centre consoles and all of those interior parts on vehicles are very expensive.”
Walker said many of these thieves hang out in parking lots looking for a victim. Sometimes thieves look for drivers putting items in the trunk. When the person leaves, the vehicle is robbed.
Walker advised people to put items in trunks right after they purchase them and do not transfer things in full view of anyone. Before leaving home, Walker said valuables should either be removed from the vehicle or placed in the trunk.