Saturday December 8, 2007

It's one of your most valuable commodities and that's why it's a prime target for criminals.

"In the last year or so, we've seen an average of probably just a little over one car break-in a day," said Lt. Gary Pleasants of the Charlottesville Police. "The two biggest items being stolen are laptop computers and iPods."

In fact, Lt. Pleasants says in the first 11 months of the year there were more than 400 car break-ins and in most cases the perpetrator wasn't wasting any time.

"Normally they just break the window...a rock, a brick or something, anything handy. Once they get good at it, they can be fairly quiet in actually doing that."

A few keys from Lt. Pleasants: first of all he says to park your car in a well-lit area. Criminals don't like to commit crimes underneath street lights where people can see and identify them. Also, don't leave valuables in plain view; that includes things you've bought while out shopping or even just your wallet or cash.

Finally, one way to discourage would-be criminals:

"Locking the car," Lt. Pleasants suggested. "That gives people who might be inclined to steal something an easier way in. They can open the car, obviously get in, get something, get out quickly."

And, he says, those things that get stolen from your car, you can pretty much kiss those goodbye.

"That is a difficult crime to solve, particularly when small items are stolen. You get a laptop computer stolen, there's a chance we may get those back depending on what they do with them. But iPods, usually the thief will just sell them to someone on the street they know for a few dollars and (it's) very unlikely we'll recover them."

To help folks out, Charlottesville Police will have extra patrols around area shopping centers through the end of the holiday season.