A BMW was left unlocked — and a Tiffany necklace and a Tiffany bracelet disappeared.
That was one of four cars left unlocked in Westville over the past week that burglaries took advantage of.
Need Rose Dell say it again? “Lock it or lose it.”
Lt. Dell, top cop in the West Hills/ Westville/ West Rock/ Amity/ Beverly Hills district wrote the following weekly summary of such incidents:
FROM 7/14/19 to 7/20/19 POLICE RESPONDED TO 167 CALLS FOR SERVICE IN THE WESTVILLE/WEST HILLS SECTION OF NEW HAVEN. THE FOLLOWING IS A BRIEF SUMMARY OF NOTABLE INCIDENTS:
This week there were four thefts from motor vehicles in Westville. Sunday evening a resident on McKinley Avenue parked his black BMW in the rear yard of his home at around 4 pm. When he returned to the vehicle around 8 p.m., he found that someone had rifled through it, and several items were stolen, including a Tiffany necklace, a matching Tiffany bracelet, two pairs of expensive sunglasses, and ear buds. The car had been left unlocked. Two car burglaries occurred from unlocked vehicles on Lawncrest Avenue overnight on 7/17. A debit card, loose change and blood pressure medicine were stolen from one. Loose change was stolen from the other. A bicycle was stolen from an unlocked Toyota RAV4 from Central Avenue on 7/19. PRO TIP: Lock it or lose it. Unlocked vehicles are being targeted.
On 7/15, a 2008 Kia that was parked in front of 120 Valley Street was stolen. The driver had left the vehicle at 12] pm to get something to eat. When she returned a half an hour later, the car was missing. The key was left in the vehicle.
Tuesday afternoon a female was walking her dog in the 300 block of Blake Street. A male approached her and asked about her dog. When she told him the dog was a pitbull he said, “If the dog bites me, I’ll shoot it.” The male then slapped her across the face. He was described as a bald black male wearing a long sleeve blue shirt and long pants.
Police responded Tuesday evening to the Getty Gas Station on Fitch Street for the report of a robbery. Two females walked into the store. One of the females immediately approached the clerk and engaged him in conversation. The other female began to load nineteen Red Bull energy drinks into her large purse. The clerk approached the female with the purse and demanded payment. She pushed him onto the ground and both females ran out of the store and entered a white Buick Sedan. The clerk chased the females and grabbed a paper license plate off of the rear window. Responding Officers determined that the paper plate was a fake. Video surveillance of the incident was seized.
A garage burglary occurred in the overnight hours on Central Avenue Wednesday night. In the morning, a resident found that a bike rack was removed from her vehicle that was parked in her garage. A road bicycle was also stolen along with some Ray-Ban sunglasses and a computer monitor. The garage door was broken and had been left open.
I think what the police have to do is thank the people that leave their doors open. If everybody locked their doors the thieves would have to break windows to get into the cars causing alarms to go off in the middle of the night and for those of us that do lock our doors, we would have to worry about our windows being broken. (the next sentence is written with sarcasm) After all the people that leave their cars open deserve to be robbed and we should feel badly for the thieves that are tempted to steal from the cars left open.