Vehicle break-ins trending up

Typically every year, warmer weather brings in an uptick of vehicles being broken into, and Eastlake Police Chief Larry Reik says this year is no different.

People have left everything from change to computers to purses in their cars, as well as weapons they forget to take out, he said.

Oftentimes, people in their late teens to early 20s go through these cars and get what they can whether its handfuls of change or a purse with sizable money amounts at times, Reik said.

“In the winter, we’ve even seen footprints going to each car and only the ones that were open were entered,” he said. “So, they’not really lock jacking cars or doing anything like that. They’re just hitting the softer targets.”

Exterior lighting, locking vehicles and keeping items of value in the trunk or inside of the house are constant reminders, Reik said, noting that people tend to get too comfortable at times.

“Lately, we’ve had the rash of where they leave their keys in their vehicle and they take the vehicle itself,” Reik said. “A lot of times we’ll get two days of it and then nothing for a couple of days.”

It’s a possibility that these crimes are being done in groups, where kids are staying over at another’s house and then proceed to go out and find cars. It’s pretty much like a rental car without the agreement, Reik said.

“This last group seemed to come in from the Cleveland area,” he said. “They take your car, they have a stolen plate on top of it and they’ll change license plates. They just take it until that car’s burned and then they get another one.”

People are always encouraged to phone the police department if they hear of any crime, Reik said. Oftentimes people will call the next day worried of being a bother.

“We should be bothered,” he said. “At 3 a.m., a lot of Lake County is on the quiet end, so having worked midnights before in my career, getting a 3 a.m. call to go check something out is not a bad thing.”

In addition to car breakins and grand theft auto, there has been an uptick in fraud, whether it’s over the phone or online, Reik said. The department strives to keep senior citizens protected with fraud, he said.

“No one is going to ask you to go buy Walmart gift cards to pay your tax bill,” he said. “It hurts when you see how much - from $500 to $50,000. They keep coming up with better and new scams to get people’s information.”

Again, Reik wants people to know anyone can call the department anytime. The more people call, more information can be put out for families to become more aware.

Crime adapts to the time period people are in, he said. Today, most restaurants and stores have security cameras whereas in the past, it was easy to pinpoint which places did not have alarms or cameras.

Smaller thefts — shoplifting and break-ins — probably will never go away, but it’s all about the way they’re being addressed and monitored to be prevented, he said.

“It’s a societal issue,” he said. “When I took this job, one of the things was unless the entire world develops some moral clarity, we’re always going to have some type of need.”

Much police work is directed activity, where an officer is on a call of a theft or fraud, Reik said. When they’re all caught up on reports, officers are always out patrolling to be visible to the public and to notice what’s out of order based on their experiences of what areas should normally look like, he said.

Between everyone employed at the station, thousands of experiences are shared among the officers, Reik said. In the last five years, the group of officers have become younger. At one point, the average age was 38, which is high, he said. Now, mostly officers in their 20’s are employed.

“We have a good balance of old and young guys,” Reik said. “I’ve been chief for almost 10 years and I’ve hired 15 out of the 26 that we have here. A lot of guys have 10 years or under and we have a group of guys that have over 20. It’s a good balance I think.”

To keep up to date on crime occurrences in Eastlake, visit the Eastlake Police Department’s Facebook page.

MARAH MORRISON — THE NEWS-HERALD Chief Larry Reik, of the Eastlake Police Department, reads off one of the two awardwinning citations that were presented to area officers.