By John Dobberstein, Editor
The <a href="” target=”_blank”>Broken Arrow Police Department is asking residents to be more careful about safeguarding their valuables, as they’ve seen a rash of car burglaries this year.
The department posted some charts on its Facebook page Tuesday to show what k inds of items are being stolen and how they’re being stolen.
Since Jan. 1 there have been more than 70 burglaries from vehicles in Broken Arrow, most of them in residential areas. While unlocked vehicles are easy targets, people are also breaking windows and stealing valuables.
According to statistics released by the department:
- Aside from miscellaneous items (32%), bank cards were the most frequent type of loss at 19%, followed by identification (12%), firearms (10%) wallets (8%), laptops (5%) and social security cards (5%).
- 40% of the miscellaneous items taken were from unlocked vehicles, followed equally by broken lock, slim-jim and unknown.
- 78% of the the vehicles occurred in residential areas, and 22% in business areas.
- 80% of tools stolen were from unlocked trucks, followed by 20% from truck beds.
- 45% of guns stolen came from unlocked vehicles, followed by 44% with broken windows and 11% unknown.
“There have been too many recent thefts from unlocked vehicles in our city,” the department said. “This is an easy fix. Please do not leave valuables, such as wallets, purses, guns, credit cards or laptops inside your vehicle.
If you remove those items it becomes less likely a target for thieves, especially if the doors are locked.”
Those who think they’ve seen something suspicious please should call the non-emergency phone number at (918)-259-8400.
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