BCAT News

The Burlington Police Department has some more advice for residents in the wake of the rash of car break-ins recently. 

As reported on BNEWS, on March 3, the department reported they had received approximately 50 complaints of vehicles being broken into the night before. In most instances the doors were left unlocked. 

Since that time they have had only one more incident on Jackson Road that may or may not be related and that incident is still under investigation. 

Police say the number one thing to do is to lock your vehicle doors. 

“It doesn’t matter where you live as this has been a trend around the country for many years,” Lt. Glen Mills said. “ From large cities to small rural towns and from the most exclusive and affluent communities to the most economically challenged parts of the country, this keeps happening. Even if there is nothing valuable in your car it is a very bad habit that almost always seems to come back to bite you the ‘one time’ you leave your wallet or something expensive inside.”

Mills added that it seems as if locking doors is the easiest way to prevent these thefts because they do not often see thieves break windows to gain access to vehicles. 

“We seldom see car breaks where windows are broken these days but when we do these are most often cases where wallets and purses are left in plain view,” he said. “They frequently occur around health clubs, daycare centers, parks and playgrounds because these are places where people typically leave these items in their cars and often in plain sight. These have often been done by organized groups that operate up and down the East Coast.”

The second important way to fight against these types of thefts is for everyone to look out for their neighbors and report suspicious activity when they see it. 

“It isn’t how people look that is suspicious,” Lt. Mills explains. “What is suspicious is BEHAVIOR. Specifically, behavior that is out of the ordinary such as someone looking into cars, pulling on door handles, walking around with their ‘head on a swivel’, hiding when cars are approaching, walking up to multiple driveways late at night. All of these things are suspicious behaviors and aren’t normal. We need people to call us when they see these things.”

Mills next said that if you have any information or know who have been conducting these thefts you can report them anonymously, though if you can come forward with information that could have a greater impact. 

“If you tell us who you are, you are immediately considered reliable,” he said. “If you wish to remain anonymous then we need to know how you know this information. Just because we receive an anonymous tip does not mean we can legally act on that tip. In fact, tips from anonymous people are considered unreliable unless we can shore up their reliability by confirming some facts within the tip and if we can show how the tipster knew the information.”

Also, check your security video if there have been break-ins in your neighborhood. 

“Even lower quality video might help us identify unique articles of clothing, a manner of walking, the time of night and possible vehicles involved,” Mills said. 

There are some other types of vehicle theft that occur but are less common than someone opening unlocked doors and rummaging for valuables. 

One of them is the theft of catalytic converters, a crime that is more conspicuous than stealing a wallet or phone. 

“We ask the public to call us right away if they see anyone crawling under a car or truck with tools,” Lt. Mills said. “This mostly happens in large parking lots of companies, in apartment complexes overnight and occasionally, in people’s driveways. The thieves in these cases like to target vehicles that sit higher from the ground, such as pickup trucks.”

Finally, thieves will sometimes target high-end tires and rims. 

“These happen in random spurts and mostly in apartment complexes overnight,” Mill said. “Occasionally they can happen in residential driveways. The thieves are looking for premium tires and rims so if you have these you want to take more precautions such as alarms, locking devices, lighting and cameras.”