Wichita, KS Police Report Bulletin - Watch those Garage doors!!!!

Open Garage Door Burglaries

The Wichita Police Department has noticed an increase in open garage burglaries occurring both in the East Wichita and West Wichita neighborhoods. On 19 beat and 199 beat (both in West Wichita ) 8 open garages were burglarized during the afternoon of March 28th. One witness informed the officers that the suspects "entered the garage and burglarized both vehicles in less than 15 seconds" while the owners was inside, at home, on their lunch break. On March 30^th, 8 more open garages were burglarized with most during the night time hours

Detectives in the WPD Auto Theft section are amazed (and alarmed) at the number of vehicles stolen from garages because owners leave their vehicles parked in the garage with keys in the ignition, purses in vehicles and other personal property loose in the vehicles.

At this point in time, it is believed that the people committing this type of crime (who are typically drug addicts) have been communicating with each other and have shared information about how easy it is to steal from nice neighborhoods because the property is worth more and easier to take. This means that they are deliberately driving around your neighborhoods to look for anyone who has left their garages open so they can steal from you!

PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE YOUR GARAGE DOORS OPEN - UNATTENDED

PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE ANY PERSONAL ITEMS INCLUDING BUT NOT EXCLUSIVE TO BILLFOLDS, PURSES, KEYS, GPS UNITS, LAPTOP COMPUTERS...ANY LOOSE PROPERTY, NO MATTER WHAT THE VALUE IS, BECOMES A TEMPTATION TO STEAL.

CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY IF YOU OBSERVE SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOODS.

SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS, FRIENDS AND RELATIVES.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to call Off. J. S. Bogle, your Beat Coordinator at 688-9545 or Email jbogle@wichita.gov.

Visit us: http://www.wichitapolice.com/

PLEASE BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!