BIBLE HILL - It's called ‘car hopping' by local punks and it's happening all over Colchester County.
Cars are left unlocked in driveways and valuables are lifted in the dead of night.
"The number of vehicles hit would be in the mid-hundreds for the last six months, but it could be more," said Colchester RCMP Cpl. Addie MacCallum.
"Before, it used to be a rash here and there. But now it's steady. It's almost akin to shoplifting and it's happening all over."
While money is an easy target for the thieves, it's not the only thing they look for when car hopping.
"If it's not cash, it's something that can be quickly converted to cash," said MacCallum. "Things like a GPS or portable DVD player, but they'll take anything."
Small wonder, then, that police are taking action in an attempt to tackle the problem.
Operation Hawkeye will see the RCMP give out information in a take-home kind of way - the pamphlet.
"There are a few proactive steps that greatly reduce this type of crime. First, it's locking the doors. We lock our houses, so why not our cars?" MacCallum said.
Another way to keep incident rates down is to remove valuables from the vehicle or place them out of sight.
The information will be handed out at various locations, including to victims and their neighbours.
By locking doors and removing valuables, MacCallum said the vehicle becomes less attractive to the culprits.
"It's called ‘target hardening' vehicles," said MacCallum. "It's also good to keep vehicles in a well-lit area. If it's not worth the risk to the individual, they'll just move on."
Once they take something from a vehicle, they may even return.
"If they get a GPS from a guy, they'll remember that. He'll probably get another GPS, so they'll go back," said MacCallum, adding thieves go all over the place, including larger populated areas.
"There are more opportunities for them."
Such opportunities landed two individuals in jail last week, however.
A 19-year-old Truro woman and 18-year-old man from Millbrook are facing charges related to thefts from cars and are scheduled to appear in court in October.
"These two people are responsible for at least 70 thefts in five days," said MacCallum, adding those were only of the incidents reported.
"There's probably an equal amount that have not been reported."
Following the man's release, he was back in police custody a week later, facing charges for the same types of crimes.
If anyone has been a victim of a theft from their vehicle, it should be reported, no matter how small or invaluable what was stolen was. Some items, when recovered, can be returned to their rightful owners.
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