Sgt. Philip EckerbergScottsbluff Police Department
Summer is in full swing, the days are hot and the nights are warm. For police officers, warm nights translates to more people roaming the streets at night. There are still people roaming the streets in the winter, but there are not nearly as many roaming in sub zero temperatures.
At least some of the people out roaming the streets aren’t just out enjoying the fresh air, they are looking for something to steal. So what can you do to stop them? It may not be possible to completely prevent thefts, especially if someone is intent on stealing a particular piece of your property, but there are things you can do to reduce the potential.
Most thefts are crimes of opportunity. The criminals will be out roaming and looking for something that is unsecured and easy to steal. Thieves need to be quick and quiet. Taking steps to slow them down and making it take longer to remove your property goes a long ways toward preventing theft.
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The simplest and most effective anti-theft device is a lock. Everything of value needs to be locked. Sheds are a great place to secure all kinds of property, from lawn mowers to bicycles. Sheds are only secure when they are locked. Leaving your shed or garage unlocked tells a thief that there is property in here worth protecting, but I am making it easy for you by leaving it unlocked.
Thieves could carry tools with them to break locks, but as we have discussed, thieves want to be quick and quiet and don’t want to take the time or make the noise to remove the locks. The other thing is that walking around at night carrying the appropriate tools to break locks will get the attention of a police officer pretty quick.
A lot of bicycles get stolen in Scottsbluff. Most of them were left in a front yard for just a few minutes without being locked up. A bicycle lock is just a few dollars, whereas a new bicycle is several hundred dollars. Locking your bicycle up takes just a few seconds and is well worth the effort.
All cars have locks, use them. Don’t leave the keys in the car. Almost every time a car is stolen in Scottsbluff, the thief has the keys. Don’t leave anything of value in your car overnight. Park your car in a lighted area, make use of motion sensor lights, and if you have camera, make sure that they are working.
When I work nights, I drive around and will start to see dome lights on inside of cars. This tells me that someone is wandering around and trying car doors to see if they are unlocked. The offender will then look around inside the car for anything of value — It could be as simple as the pocket change in the cup holder. When they are done, they don’t completely shut the door because they don’t want to make noise, so the dome light stays on for a while. If you see someone at night looking into cars, call immediately, do not wait until tomorrow. The sooner the police are notified, the better the odds of us catching them are.
Sometimes, all the prevention efforts fail and your valuable property is stolen. There are some steps you can take ahead of time to make it more likely that the police can recover your property and make an arrest. The most important piece of information we need is the make, model and serial number of your property. For example, the discount stores sell a lot of bicycles that look exactly the same. Police need to be able to prove that this bicycle belongs to you and no one else. Serial numbers are the best way to do this. Other things that help are a unique owner applied number of some sort, especially important on smaller items that don’t have a unique serial number.
The theft needs to be reported. Don’t assume that there is nothing we can do about it. We could already have your property in custody and don’t know who it belongs to.
The old saying is that an ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure. Taking a few seconds to put things away and lock them up is a lot quicker than the hours of time it will take to solve a crime. A lock is a lot less expensive than buying new property.
Sgt. Philip Eckerberg, of the Scottsbluff Police Department, answers questions submitted by readers each week. To submit a question for consideration, email policeinfo@scottsbluff.org.
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