By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph police are warning residents to keep their cars locked after a string of car break-ins.
Police report three autos were stolen and several were ransacked very early Tuesday morning when a group of thieves fanned out in several neighborhoods in eastern St. Joseph.
Sgt. Roy Hoskins says these are thieves of opportunity.
“They will pick a neighborhood and it’s usually a small group of people doing this, two to four people,” Hoskins tells St. Joseph Post. “One will drive down the road. The others will get out on foot, run up and down the road, grab door handles on cars. If they find one open, then they’ll go ahead and get in that car and ransack it, looking for anything valuable.”
Hoskins warns not to give them easy access.
“Lock your car, remove your keys, and remove valuable items from the vehicle entirely and if you’re not able to do that, at least remove them from sight,” Hoskins says. “The best thing you can do is lock the car, because when we talk about these groups of people running down the road, grabbing for door handles, if they don’t find one open, they find it locked, and they don’t see anything laying in the seat that piques their interest, they’ll generally keep on moving down the road.”
Hoskins says the group of thieves hit several neighborhoods Tuesday morning, stealing three cars and ransacking several others. Two of the stolen vehicles were recovered in Savannah.