Locking car doors an important precaution

Published 12:00 am Sunday, November 1, 2009

It’s time to develop a new habit. No matter where a person lives in Vicksburg, it’s time to add one more step to the routine of getting out of the car and going into your home or apartment for the evening: Lock the car doors.

This is already becoming second nature to residents of several areas — Oak Park, Shenandoah and, most recently, Marion Park.

Police and sheriff’s deputies are also becoming familiar with the pattern. If a day starts with one caller reporting a car burglary, other calls will start pouring in.

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Last week, the overnight tally along one quiet residential lane — Warren Street — didn’t stop until the total was 14 for the area.

Police do have a tip. Lt. Bobby Stewart said it was about 4 a.m. when a resident spotted two young men running away from her vehicle. And that seems to be the pattern. The thieves apparently arrive by vehicle and “work” the street and driveways for easy pickings, bypassing locked vehicles for those they can be pretty sure won’t sound alarms if their doors are opened.

The ransacking sometimes nets little to nothing — $3 cash in one case. In other cases, the loss is greater, including guns and cameras and other electronics. In both cases, the intrusion is unnerving. This is not petty crime.

Eventually, we have every reason to believe, the “perps” will be at work on their nightly rounds when a patrolling officer spots them and takes them into custody. Either that or it will become too cold, even for burglars.

In the interim, caution is the best prescription. To frustrate a thief, lock your vehicle doors.