It’s a good piece of advice that West Vancouver residents don’t seem to want to take.
Police are reminding residents to leave their cars locked and keep their valuables with them. The municipality is experiencing a spike in vehicle break-ins, the majority of which involved valuables being left in unlocked vehicles, according to police. At 92 so far this year, the number of vehicle break-ins has almost doubled compared to the same period last year.
“I’ll be honest. I’m running out of ways to say ‘Please don’t leave your wallets and valuables in your unlocked cars,’” Const. Jeff Palmer, West Vancouver police spokesman, said with an exasperated laugh.
Police have had 27 reports of “theft from auto” since the start of the month, compared to just four in the same period in 2016, Palmer said. In 67 per cent of the cases, goods were stolen from vehicles left unlocked. Just 22 per cent involved a smash-and-grab.
While the rash of thefts is spread across the district, one person on foot checking door handles can target a lot of vehicles in a short time.
“If you’ve got easy targets, one person can rack up quite a number of these kinds of thefts from auto,” he said. “People need to harden the target, as it were.”
Some people choose to leave their vehicles unlocked, believing it will prevent damage from being done should someone be determined to break in, although that strategy shouldn’t be applied if you’re also leaving desirables in your car, Palmer added.
“Whether your door is locked or unlocked, there is no strong case for leaving valuables in your car,” he said.
