Burlington Reporter

Town of Whitsett issued the following announcement on Feb. 22.

Help prevent car break-ins at our area parks. As warmer weather starts to move back in the coming weeks so does criminal activity at our area parks and trails in the form of motor vehicle break-ins. 

We had two reports come in this past weekend alone of cars broken into at both Oak Ridge and Triad Parks targeting purses left in plain view. 

Please help us prevent these crimes, we suggest: 

- Leaving your valuables at home and only carry essential items with you. Many of these cases target purses and wallets left in plain sight. If you must carry your purse with you, we suggest locking it up in your trunk before you leave your house. We have seen cases previously where subjects case parking lots watching for people putting items in their trunks. 

- NEVER LEAVE VALUABLES IN PLAIN SIGHT!!!!

- Lock your car doors. While many of these cases are “smash and grab” type break-ins at parks, one of the biggest deterrents to prevent car break-ins is the simple act of locking your car doors. 

- Never leave your keys or an extra key fob in your vehicle. 

- Never leave a gun unattended in your vehicle. 

- If you are at a park at dawn or dusk, park in well lit areas. 

- If you MUST leave valuables in your car, please keep serial numbers on file for anything that has one. Also have your credit card numbers and banking information handy in order to cancel any cards should they be stolen. 

Many of these crimes are committed by offenders from out of state who move from town to town targeting area parks, thus making these cases even more difficult to solve. They are fast, and they are often are using stolen credit cards even before the owner realizes they’ve been victimized.

Please do your part and lower your chances of becoming a victim by following some of the suggestions above. As always, please report suspicious activity immediately by calling 911 or the non-emergency line for Guilford-Metro 911 at 336-373-2222. 

If you believe you are witnessing a car break-in: be a good witness: obtain tag numbers, vehicle descriptions and direction of travel.

Original source can be found here.