Columbia car break-ins on the rise

Vehicle break-ins in the city of Columbia have risen more than 25 percent since 2013, and they typically get worse during summer.

There were 1,654 of them in Columbia in 2013, according to numbers provided by the Columbia Police Department. That figure inched up to 1,698 the following year, to 1,716 in 2015. Car break-ins spiked last year by 372 incidents to 2,088. That’s up by 26.2 percent in four years.

As of May 31, there have been 920 car break-ins this year, indicating that 2017 will match last year’s four-year high, according to police data.

“It’s not in one particular area, but they’re all over the city,” Columbia police Lt. Michael Blair said.

Drivers who leave their doors unlocked get victimized most often, Blair said. But more determined thieves use screwdrivers or “pop the lock” devices to get to the loot that waits inside.

In June, five young teens were arrested on vehicle break-in charges.

“Typically speaking, auto-breakings spike in the summer months when school is not in session,” police spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons said.

‘It’s gonna happen’

Car break-in statistics for specific areas or neighborhoods were not readily available, but residents in the Rosewood neighborhood say they are a regular occurrence on their streets.

“We have break-ins nearly daily in the neighborhood now,” said David West, 46, whose family lives on Elm Street. His and his wife’s vehicles have been broken into four times in the last few years. Most recently, a window on their van was forced open last month.

“A couple of times we were negligent and probably didn’t lock our cars,” he said. “All they got was change out of the ash tray.”

Brennan Gerards, 31, has lived in Rosewood for six years and has had his car broken into four times. A gym bag is the most that thieves have taken. Still, vehicle break-ins happen so often that it’s become “just part of living in this area,” Gerards said.

“I have neighbors that have moved in,” he said. Included in the welcome from longtime neighbors is a warning. “Don’t leave anything in your car because it’s gonna happen.”

In the South Kilbourne neighborhood, residents find that not only valuable items like laptops or GPS devices have been taken from their vehicles, but also owner’s manual or miscellaneous paperwork, according to Michele Bender Huggins, who leads the neighborhood association. Other neighbors often find those items tossed into their yards.

“We’re getting hit a lot,” she said. “We’re having a lot of people that are going up, lifting the handles, and, if they can get into the car, they rifle through them.”

In addition to urging residents to remove valuables from their cars and lock the doors, they are encouraged to be looking for suspicious people and to alert police, Huggins said.

“The worst feeling in the world is to come home and find out ... your car’s been broken into,” she said. “Somebody says, ‘I saw somebody earlier but I didn’t think much about it.’”

‘Thieves can be very clever’

Another mistake people make, especially during the summer months, is leaving their windows cracked when making what they think is a quick trip into a convenience store or their home, according to Tiffany Wright of AAA Carolinas.

“Thieves can be very clever, even if your window is just cracked or your sunroof is open,” she said.

Also, don’t leave in plain view items that could entice a thief to your vehicle, Wright said. By that, she means phone chargers, electronic cords and shopping bags – even if they’re empty.

“All of these could lead a thief to believe there’s something valuable in there,” she said.

Columbia police use reported crime to help decide how and where to crack down, crime analyst Cannon Fulmer said. That’s one of the reasons that every break-in, even those when nothing is missing, should be reported.

“You can determine the most frequent hour of the day in which a particular series of crimes has occurred,” Fulmer said. “We can assume if the pattern continues, the hour of the week in which most of these crimes occurred in the past will probably be the hour of the week in which they occur in the future.”

This story was originally published July 5, 2017 at 7:58 PM with the headline "Columbia car break-ins on the rise."