Barrhead is undergoing a minor epidemic, one Sgt. Bob Dodds of the RCMP hopes doesn’t become a major one.
The epidemic he is referring to is auto theft. Since January to date (July 27) there have been 46 auto thefts in the Barrhead area.
“A few years ago, when I was stationed in Northern B.C. I can recall when there were something like 70 all terrain vehicles stolen. At least once a week we had an ATV go,” he said. “Now here I am in Barrhead and if things continue as they are, we are on pace to lose 100 and we aren’t talking just about ATVs, but full sized cars and trucks. That’s just incredible.”
However, Dodds said the majority of these thefts could have been stopped if people had just taken a few precautions.
“Most of these thefts were ones of convenience. They were stolen because they were easy targets,” he said, adding a large majority of the vehicles were ones where the vehicle was unlocked and the keys were in the ignition.
Out of the 46 vehicles about 36 are pickup trucks. At first the RCMP tried to determine if there was a trend in the type of pickup trucks that were being stolen.
For example, a few years ago, Dodds said thieves seemed to be targeting a certain range of model years of Super Duty Ford pickup trucks because they were relatively easy to break into, even if they were properly locked.
Now, he said, the police are seeing more Dodge pickups being stolen, adding he isn’t sure why.
“It could just be because they are more plentiful than others, but as police we are always trying to pick up trends or patterns. For example, who are the people that are taking the vehicles?” he asked.
Dodds said because the majority of the stolen vehicles, whether they be pickup trucks or cars, are recovered within 50 to 100 kilometres of where they were taken, he suspects the majority of people are just looking for quick and easy transportation.
“Chances are the vehicles that we don’t recover end up in a chop shop somewhere,” he said.
As for where the majority of the thefts are occurring, RCMP statistics point to the rural areas and farms. Once again, Dodds says the major reason for this is because of convenience.
Because there the population density is less, it is more likely that the criminals will be able to steal a vehicle without being seen. Also more farm vehicles tend to be the ones that are unlocked with the keys inside.
“It’s a matter of convenience. A lot of farms have a number of trucks on them, between grain trucks, half tons, a fuel truck, all that sort of thing,” Dodds said. “Because people find it inconvenient to have to go back to the house and sort through a bunch of keys for which ever truck they need, they just leave it unlocked with the keys inside. The problem with that is that the thieves know that too.”
When the RCMP get a call about a stolen vehicle, Dodds said it is difficult, if not impossible for them to find the culprit because of the length of time between the actual crime and when it is reported.
“We often get calls saying, that the last time I saw my truck was four or five days ago, so I’m not sure when it got stolen, but it wasn’t there this morning,” he said, adding people have to be aware of what is happening on their property. “Park your vehicles where you can easily and regularly check on them.”
Unfortunately, Dodds said it just isn’t in rural locations where people think it is OK to leave their vehicles unlocked.
He said, adding if he were to take a walking tour of downtown Barrhead, he would be willing to wager that he would find that the large majority of vehicles were unlocked and that a handful would have the keys still in the ignition.
“It’s just a way of life in a small community. We live in a safe community so we can leave our houses unlocked and the keys in our car,” he said, adding people are partially right. “In most ways it is a safe community. The chances of you being physically harmed by crime are quite small, but your property isn’t as safe.”
Fortunately, he said there are a number of things you can do to protect your vehicle, the first being to locking your vehicle and not leave the keys inside. Although they seem to have gone out of vogue, Dodds suggested the Club or another steering lock mechanism.
Other tips he suggested is to make sure no valuables are visible to tempt would-be robbers. Besides vehicle thefts, another issue that is becoming more of a problem in Barrhead is what the RCMP call car hopping — going from car to car, checking to see if it is locked and if it isn’t stealing everything that is in it.
“On any given night, there are probably 100 cars in Barrhead on the street that are unlocked and if a person just took a dollar of loose change from every one of them, they would have some pretty good coin. That’s bad enough, but people leave all sorts of things in their cars, wallets, cellphone, tablets, some real high end stuff,” he said, adding the loss of electronic items and identification can lead to crimes such as identity theft.
Garage door openers are another item, criminals are looking for while they are car hopping which they can use along with the information from the car to target a person’s home.
The good news Dodds said is that the majority of all property crimes are preventable.
“Just by locking stuff up we could prevent a major percentage of our property crimes, as well as other public safety issues,” he said, adding especially when it comes to vehicle theft. “A lot of these people are drug users, unlicensed. If the police try to stop them they don’t care and just take off. Just think how you would feel if by leaving your keys in your vehicle it was involved in a collision after it was stolen and someone got seriously hurt. That is going to happen one day. Yes, theft is always going to happen, but if we can eliminate the easy ones, it makes it just that much safer for everyone.”
