As most would think, just being a thief makes someone a lazy person. After all, how else is someone who doesn't work or uses drugs support themselves or a habit?
Well the laziness I'm talking about is simply a growing trend I've noticed over the past several years during my career.
There was a time when I would get dispatched to an Entering Auto call and while en route I had certain expectations based on previous calls.
I was going to find a broken window. The victim will have left a laptop or purse sitting on the seat. Car GPS system visible on the dash. All pretty typical. Now these thieves did some work. Scoped out the car for valuables, ensured nobody was around, risked detection when they broke out the window, and then gotta make the getaway.
Those were the good ole days. Now a broken window is a rarity.
90% of vehicles that have items stolen from inside were left unlocked. You read that correctly, we are enabling this laziness by leaving doors unlocked and valuables in our vehicles. We would typically see one or two cars in a neighborhood or shopping center broken into, now there are hundreds. The reason is "Flipping". These lazy thieves will simply walk through a neighborhood or parking lot and "flip" the door handles of cars to see whats open. If the door is unlocked something inside is going to grow legs. Even something as mundane as the lowly change in the cup holder, gone.
This is truly a crime of opportunity, an opportunity we are creating by not locking our cars.
If it were only the change in the cup holder that is a loss that while not acceptable we could live with. The problem arises with the plethora of individuals who leave their vehicles unlocked with a weapon inside. Great now in addition to not having any change there is a stolen gun in the hands of a criminal.
We have to do better. Many Law Enforcement agencies have adopted the "9pm Routine". A daily reminder via social media to get valuables out of the vehicle and lock your doors.
Lets all get together and make a promise to lock our doors and remove those valuables.
Together we can bring back the elaborately planned heist and caper and make these criminals actually start working for their loot.
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