Lake Cities Deal with More Vehicle Break-Ins

Flower Mound is the latest southern Denton County city to report a cluster of vehicle break-ins being reported in a single night.

This time it happened in the Tour 18 neighborhood where police say 12 vehicles were broken into and stolen from last weekend; between Sept. 19-20.

Assistant Police Chief Wendell Mitchell said thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, small electronics and other loose items were reported missing from the vehicles.

While two of the 12 did have broken windows the morning of the reports, Mitchell said none of the others displayed evidence of forcible entry meaning, likely, that the doors were left unlocked.

That’s become an all too common story throughout the Lake Cities in the past month where police from Highland Village, Lewisville, Lake Dallas, Hickory Creek, Corinth and Little Elm all reported multiple vehicles being entered and stolen from while unlocked.

According to current crime maps from the website crimereports.com, several incidents have recently been reported in parking lots and neighborhoods from Flower Mound to The Colony and Plano.

"They're looking for the easy score,” said Mitchell. “They're not looking to have a job, they're looking for somebody to take stuff from."

Commonly, criminals in these cases will simply go from car to car testing door handles until they find one is unlocked.

A surveillance video from Lewisville last month showed two people police believe were doing just that in a neighborhood that had multiple break-ins reported the next day.

Richard Fregoso, owner of Audio Pro in Lewisville, said he’s followed the news of break-ins across the area closely as folks come to his store looking for added security features for their cars.

"Nowadays they're finding out that even vehicles that are just strictly stocked from the factory are targets for a lot of criminals,” said Fregoso.

He said one of his more popular items is a device that actually automatically locks and unlocks the vehicle as you walk away and to it; perhaps an item he said more should look into to avoid the unlocked door issue.

Assistant Chief Wendell said locking vehicle doors needs to be standard procedure for folks no matter if you’re parking at home or in a busy lot.

He also recommends using a garage when at home if possible and above all removing valuable items from your car when you leave it, so that even if someone breaks a window to get in, there won’t be anything of value to take.

Flower Mound police also ask residents of their town and any surrounding communities to call police right away if they see someone testing door handles.

"If you see something suspicious, call us,” said Wendell.

Police said regardless of if doors are locked or not, it is against the law to enter someone’s vehicle without their permission and take items from inside.

However, they recommend folks make themselves as difficult a target for criminals as possible.

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