New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Wave of car thefts, burglaries hits the Shoreline area
SHORELINE — “Lock Your Cars” is the mantra police up and down the Shoreline are repeating as car thefts and burglaries of unlocked vehicles continue to plague the area.
While there are isolated cases of actual break-ins, most of the incidents are a result of keys left in the ignition and unlocked cars, with valuables left inside.
“It’s an epidemic in the
state right now,” said Madison Police Department
Capt. Joseph A. Race.
In addition to locking cars and bringing all valuables inside, fobs should be stored a safe distance from the vehicle since fobs from keyless vehicles can activate the vehicle within a certain range.
“When we talk to the kids that are doing it, we ask them,” said Clinton Police Department Detective Bryan Pelligrini. “They say, ‘We’re not going to break a window and make noise. We just get the cars that are unlocked. We go up to a car, we jiggle the handle and if it’s open, we go in and if it’s locked, we move on.’”
The majority of cars are being retrieved in surrounding towns and cities, including Bridgeport, Milford, New Haven and Waterbury.
Branford Chief of Police Kevin Halloran said it appears to be groups of individuals targeting the area.
“What we believe is happening and what we’ve seen on video is that cars are coming into neighborhoods, and they probably have between four and six occupants, and they get out of the cars and they scatter all over the neighborhood and what they’re doing is trying to open up car doors,” he said.
Wallets, laptops, money and any other items of value are being taken and if there are keys are in the car they take the vehicle, he explained.
“In some sense it seems almost completely senseless,” said Race. “If they come here, they come to Clinton, Guilford, Killingworth, wherever, they’ll steal car, drive it back to New Haven and dump it; drive it around for the night and dump it. It doesn’t make sense.”
While the thefts have occurred randomly, Race said that there is a spike on the weekends.
Statistics vary from town to town, yet the rise in this crime appears to have started in January 2017 and steadily increased over time.
In Branford, this year alone, there have been 36 motor vehicle thefts, showing a 29 percent increase from 2017 and an 84 percent increase in the five-year average. Thefts from motor vehicles, year-to-date totals are 93, a 9 percent increase from last year and a 33 percent increase over the fiveyear average.
In Madison, the incidents started escalating in June 2017. According to Race, over the last 14 months there have been 19 vehicle thefts and 69 thefts from vehicles. He said in 2015 Madison had no vehicles stolen and in 2016 there were about eight incidents.
The same pattern is evident in Guilford, where there were 12 stolen cars and 126 thefts or attempted thefts from vehicles this year alone.
“There’s definitely a spike, both in ’17 and ’18. The reality is it’s increased exponentially,” said Guilford Chief of Police Jeffrey Hutchinson.
“They (criminals) are using the trust that people have in the area that they’re living in and the comfort levels, against them,” Hutchinson added. “People need to understand that just because you’re somewhere that you consider to be safe, it doesn’t mean that your property can be left unprotected and unlocked.”
The majority of the perpetrators are juveniles and young adults. Some officers attribute the crime wave to the criminal justice reform enacted over the last two years ago that has reduced the authority of judges in the state to deal with young criminals, especially juveniles.
“These are often juveniles, under 18 by Connecticut law, who know, or are quite confident, that nothing is going to happen to them, even when they get caught,” said Hutchinson.
Due to this, these individuals are often repeat offenders.
“The police are less likely to put the kid in detention because really all that’s left for grounds for detention are essentially that the kid’s a threat to public safety,” said Francis J. Carino, supervisory assistant state’s attorney.
“So, unless the kid is on his fifth stolen car, there’s a high-speed chase, an accident, a judge might just say, ‘Well, the kid stole a car, but that doesn’t necessarily pose a threat to public safety sufficient to lock the kid up,’ because that’s now the basis for detention’” Carino added.
“I would say, yes, kids are less likely to go to detention after they’re arrested,” he said, “because unless they pose a threat to public safety or they have some history for not appearing in court or they’re wanted by some other jurisdiction, those kids aren’t likely to go to a detention center.”
This leads to repeat offenders.
“One thing that is kind of troubling is, when we run fingerprints we get hits on the fingerprints, it’s because these individuals have stolen cars before and they’re still doing it,” Race added.
Police urge anyone who witnesses this activity to immediately contact their local police department. These individuals have engaged police in high speed chases and some have been caught in possession of firearms.
Vehicle owners are encouraged to be vigilant about protecting their property.