Community Roll Call

Members of the Wauwatosa Police Department's Community Support Division, with backup provided by the folks at WauwatosaNow.com, are now blogging. We will be providing you with an ongoing series of crime prevention tips, any current crime trends as well as pertinent news and notes as it relates to your Police Department.

Thefts From Vehicles

Theft, Crime Prevention, Security

Theft from vehicles is making a comeback in the City of Wauwatosa. In almost all of the cases the cars were left unlocked with some desriable items inside including satellite radio receivers, laptops and GPS units. In a few instances, just a GPS mount was left visible and the cars locked; unfortunately this was enough temptation to lead to a window being broken in hopes the GPS was inside.

Do you remember your school science when they taught us about the fire triangle and how if you took away part of the triangle a fire could not happen? Well we have a crime triangle as well; the three sides are DESIRE, ABILITY and OPPORTUNITY. The one thing we as citizens can and should be taking away from the crime triangle is opportunity.

Please review and implement the following tips in an effort to reduce the opportunity for theft from vehicles to take place:

  • Never leave anything of value in your vehicle
  • Remove not only your portable electronic devices but everything related to those items as well
  • Never keep anything of value in plain sight if you must leave it in your vehicle
  • Get out of the habit of leaving loose change in your car
  • Always park in a well lit area, if you park in the driveway at home install sufficient exterior lighting
  • Always lock your car

No matter where you park your car, in a garage or outdoors, home or away, these tips should be followed.

Rembember, if we take away the opportunity for crime then the criminals will have to find somewhere else to try to committ their crime. 

This post is a near mirror image of a post I made in November  of 08' and August of 09'; please share this message with your family and neighbors so that we can eliminate this issue. As always, If I missed something on this topic please feel free to email me or leave a comment.

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