Five Unlocked Vehicles Rummaged Through in Fox Point and Bayside
Four Bayside residents and one Fox Point resident reported their vehicles had been visited by a thief the night before. A few were missing loose change, but others said items as expensive as iPods and GPS units were taken.
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Four Bayside residents and one Fox Point resident reported their unlocked vehicles were targeted by a thief the night before.
In Bayside, the thefts all occurred on Friday and Saturday evenings, into the early morning hours. All four vehicles were unlocked and the thief made off with a Verizon router valued at $100, an iPod valued at $150, and a total of $20 in change from three cars.
These thefts occurred in the 8800 block of North Malibu Drive, 8800 block of North Regent Road, 8900 block of North Santa Monica Boulevard. Two cars were sifted through in the 100 block of Glencoe Place.
With this many thefts, some may ask why fingerprints can't be used to identify the thief. Special Investigator for the Fox Point Police Department, Michelle Wichman, said it's tough with vehicles because it is not easy to get prints off the materials used in cars, and too often, there are many prints to filter through.
“Certain surfaces, the prints appear easier when you try and process them versus a coarse surface," she said. "You may have multiple people in and out of your car, sometimes it’s difficult because you almost need elimination prints for everybody that’s been in there.”
She said the officer who took the report can determine if he or she feels processing for fingerprints would be useful.
In Fox Point, an unlocked vehicle in the 7700 block of North Club Circle was targeted Sunday morning. The thief went through the glove compartment and got away with an iPod valued at $200. The owner reported to Fox Point police that he parked his car in the driveway the night before. At 7 a.m., he said his dogs hadstarted barking for no reason, however, no one checked to see if anything was going on outside.
Wichman gave a few simple tips to keep from being an easy target for people looking to steal things from cars.
"Lock your vehicle and put things out of sight," Wichman said. "Valuables should be hidden from view if you leave them in the vehicle. Make sure to write down serial numbers for electronic valuables so they can potentially be tracked and owner-identified if they are located."
Matt Heltsley
12:22 pm on Thursday, May 3, 2012
That sucks. Having had my car broken into (not while at home) I know how much this can sting. I guess I don't understand though why fingerprints were not taken at least from the door handles and edges of the doors (where prints are quite easy to get). Clearly the police don't feel this sort of crime is worth their time, you know with all the much bigger crime going on in the area (please read that sarcastically, this is likely the most excitement they had that night). And I find it disingenuous to say prints would be too tough to get in this situation. Elimination prints are not really needed because they would simply be looking for prints that spanned multiple cars. It is however unlikely the prints would be in their database as these crimes are likely by a minor, or multiple minors, but it would allow them to tie this person or persons back to these crimes when they are caught for something else, and eventually they will be caught for something. Also who knew so many people left iPods in their cars? I find that oddest of all. I guess I learned 2 new things from this. That people keep their iPods in their cars for some reason and that the police don't really mind if you steal them from those people's cars, but they will track you down if you take essentially valueless signage from McDonalds (in reference to previous Patch story). Good to know.