Residents in the Center Grove area once again woke up to their vehicles rummaged through, and in some cases, stolen.
The thefts reported Monday morning follow multiple reports in communities throughout Johnson County as thefts from vehicles have become the popular summer crime.
And now, the sheriff is asking residents to protect themselves by taking their purses, wallets and, most importantly, their firearms inside their homes.
Police also need the public’s help watching out for unusual activity in their neighborhood, and when they see it, calling police immediately, Sheriff Doug Cox said.
“If you see something, say something. That is how these kids are going to be caught; if you see a suspicious vehicle or suspicious person,” Cox said.
In past summers, home break-ins were the most common crime. But this year, the trend has shifted to thefts from vehicles and vehicle thefts, Cox said. And the common items they want are wallets, purses and guns, he said.
So far this year, deputies have been called to 49 thefts from vehicles and vehicle thefts, Cox said. Last year, the sheriff’s office had 88 of those reports.
Last week, at least 13 vehicles were broken into in two Center Grove area neighborhoods near Stones Crossing Road and State Road 135.
But other communities are being hit too, including Greenwood, Whiteland and Franklin, Cox said.
Earlier this month, multiple thefts were reported from vehicles in the West Parke neighborhood, near Hospital Road and U.S. 31 in Franklin, and at least four vehicles were broken into on the west side of Greenwood, according to police reports.
Unfortunately, locking your vehicles isn’t enough to deter all the thieves, since some will still break into vehicles, despite the noise that it makes and the increased risk of being caught, Cox said. But he still recommends people lock their vehicles and close their garage doors at night.
In one theft this week, the thief stole a vehicle from a person’s garage in Brockton Manor where the door had been left open and the keys were hanging inside. When that happens, the thief also unfortunately now has access to the home through the garage door opener, Cox said. Another vehicle stolen from the Mount Pleasant neighborhood had a faulty ignition switch that could be started without a key, the report said.
If residents take their items inside with them at night, that could help lower the amount of thefts. But police also want residents to be sure to not leave guns in their vehicles, since those are popular to steal and can put officers at risk if they confront a theft suspect in the act, he said.
Investigators are assigned to each string of thefts, and begin looking for evidence, including nearby surveillance cameras to try to track down the thieves, Cox said. But they don’t always have a lot to go on if nothing was reported until the thefts were discovered, he said. And in at least one recent case, the thief wore a mask to not be recognized by cameras, he said.
“As we get smarter, so do they,” Cox said.
But if residents call when they see something suspicious in their neighborhoods, that will help, Cox said. Recently, deputies were called to a report of a man sleeping inside a vehicle in a neighborhood, and are now investigating at least one theft through information from that initial call, he said.
“When we get one group off the street, there is going to be another group hitting us,” Cox said.
