Columbus police are seeing an increase in the theft of items from vehicles, and officers want residents to remember to remove valuables and lock their cars.
Between Aug. 1 and Sept. 11, Columbus Police Department received 64 reports of thefts from motor vehicles in Columbus. In 59 of those reports, the vehicle was unlocked.
“We are asking for the public’s assistance in helping CPD reduce property crime,” said Lt. Matt Harris, Columbus Police Department spokesman. “By removing and securing valuable items, locking your vehicle doors and reporting suspicious activity to law enforcement, you can help us reduce the number of thefts.”
The thefts from cars are not in one area. Police say the reports are coming from all over the city, from Tipton Lakes to the west to the shopping areas along Old National Road.
Police believe that individuals are going from neighborhood to neighborhood overnight, targeting unlocked vehicles that might have valuables inside, Harris said.
On Wednesday, police were called after an individual reported two laptops stolen from an unlocked vehicle in a store parking lot, Harris said.
“We are not talking about a rash of cases of windows being busted out of cars,” Harris said. “Someone is seeing something valuable — a laptop, cell phone, purse or firearm, and that’s what they are taking from unlocked vehicles.”
Police do have surveillance video from one of the thefts that shows an individual carrying a flashlight going car-to-car in a neighborhood, checking the inside of vehicles with a flashlight and then trying the car doors, Harris said. The video shows that if the vehicle is locked, the individual moved on to the next car.
The warning about thefts from cars comes just a few days after Columbus police reminded residents that there has been an uptick in the number of firearms being stolen from unsecured vehicles and homes.
Four unsecured guns were reported stolen in Columbus the first week of September, bringing the total number of guns stolen to 47 so far in 2018.
Harris said Columbus residents need to remember to remove valuables from their cars and lock their vehicles every time, and also to lock their homes and garage doors.
“We’re not blaming residents for these thefts,” he said.
But police say the number of cases will go down if residents lock their cars, homes and garage doors and refrain from leaving valuable items in unlocked vehicles.
