Auto Burglaries Revving Up In Downtown Sacramento

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Downtown and Midtown residents are outraged over the recent explosion of auto burglaries.

Thieves are going vehicle to vehicle, breaking windows and running off with valuables. Police are now fighting back with bait cars.

Auto burglary victims in Sacramento have reached their limits of being frustrated with being burglarized.

"I was parked down to N street here, came back in the morning and all my luggage and camera gear was gone out of the back of my truck," a burglary victim said.

The burglaries seem to be happening a lot on Monday and Thursday afternoons. There are several hot spots in the city that are seeing a spike of smash and grab of belongings left in vehicles. Police say the problem is all over Sacramento and crooks seem to be counting on our laziness to help them out.

"What we're finding is people are leaving things exposed that might look valuable..and the windows are being broken or the cars are just being unlocked," Capt. Norm Leong with the Sacramento Police said.

Sacramento police officers say one of their lines of defense is increasing the number of bait cars — vehicles purposely set up with enticing valuables inside that burglars can clearly see if they walk by. If a crook pops the window, the valuables and car will be tracked.

Another thing police are doing is handing out flyers or putting them on vehicles that have visible valuables inside.

In all, officers say the easiest way to stop potential crime is for all of us to make things harder for thieves by asking people to hide their items from plain sight.

Police say out-smarting crooks should now be part of your routine when parking downtown.

"I'm good at hiding things, we don't leave things out like laptops, wallets, cell phones or even chargers," a driver said.

It's a new way of thinking to secure your stuff as downtown Sacramento continues to grow with entertainment and more people and vehicles will be around.

Even though afternoons are the hot times when crooks are burglarizing cars, police say big events like at the Golden 1 Center are never a time to leave your guard down.