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By Robert Rosen
Hometown Weekly Staff
Law enforcement officials throughout the MetroWest area are on the alert after a sharp increase in motor vehicle break-ins over the past couple of months.
Many of the incidents across several towns appear to be linked and the same perpetrators are still at large. The vehicle thefts have been a combination of both secured and unsecured break-ins, according to both Lt. Marie Cleary of the Wellesley Police Department and Det. Paul Toland of the Westwood Police Department.
An secured break-in is one in which the culprit likely smashed a window to get a valuable item that he or she saw inside the vehicle, while an unsecured break-in is one in which the vehicle was left unlocked.
“It’s a crime of opportunity,” said Sgt. Luke Tedstone of the Sherborn Police Department, noting that Sherborn has been fortunate to not have had any motor vehicle break-ins recently. “They go for whatever is the easiest target, such as an office park where they might try 35 cars [and gain entry to three].”
Some of the items being taken are spare change, iPhones, iPods, designer sunglasses and wallets. The thief often will smash a window when there is a purse or bag visible in the vehicle, as sometimes people leave their laptops and tablets in their vehicles.
In Westwood, there have been upwards of a dozen car break-ins over the last three months, most of them with windows being smashed and personal belongings being removed. Most of these crimes have occurred outside businesses at University Station, the new development in Westwood located near the train station.
“There’s been some regional enforcement of parking lots,” Toland said. “There’s been roll call training. Law enforcement is making an attempt to focus on preventative measures.”
While it’s certainly never the victim’s fault when something like this happens, law enforcement officials say there are ways to help prevent your vehicle from getting broken into while they continue to try to solve the case an make arrests.
“Residents can protect themselves from car breaks by always locking their vehicles, whether in their driveway, garage, on the street in front of their house, at their place of business, in a parking lot while dining or shopping, etc., Cleary said. “Do not leave items of value or bags sin the passenger compartment where they are visible. If these types of items must be left in the vehicle store them in the truck where they are out of sight.”
Robert Rosen is an Editor at Hometown Weekly. He can be reached at news@hometownweekly.net and followed on Twitter at @roberterosen.
