By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
SAVANNAH - Grant Gillett has been the Andrew County Sheriff for three weeks.
In that time, his office and the Savannah Police Department have seen a wave of car thefts in the area.
The most notable incident came in the early morning of January 13, when several vehicles in the Savannah area were broken into.
Savannah Police chased a stolen vehicle into Country Club, where the vehicle wrecked and a suspect was taken into custody.
A second chase on I-229 with another stolen vehicle was started by the Andrew County Sheriff's Office the same night. Spike stripes were deployed, the vehicle wrecked and another suspect was taken into custody.
Narcotics and a stolen gun were recovered, and charges against both suspects are pending.
Sheriff Gillett says there have been no reported car thefts in Andrew County since last Wednesday. He says the solution is simple - take your keys out and lock your doors.
"(Car thieves) are driving up and down the street and they're just checking every vehicle," Gillett said. "If the doors are locked, they go on past it. The vehicles that are being broken into and stolen, the doors are unlocked and the keys are in them."
Gillett says there have been several other car thefts in Andrew County prior to the two chases on the 13th. He hopes this quiet spell over the last eight days will continue.
"If people would just start securing their cars and pulling the keys out of them, we not have so many of these vehicle thefts or break-ins in our area."
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