At least 10 cars were broken into overnight and had items stolen, according to radio transmissions.
Some of the cars -- if not all -- were forced break-ins, rather than the usual opportunistic unlocked vehicle break-ins.
The location of the cars are both within and without city limits, largely in a line from East Pembroke to the city.
Law enforcement officers with both Batavia PD and the Sheriff's Office are taking reports and calls seem to still be coming in.
UPDATE 3 p.m.: We spoke with Sgt. Eric Bolles, Batavia PD. Overnight, two cars on Ellicott Avenue had items stolen from inside the vehicles. Neither car was locked. Since Oct. 4, there have been 12 car break-ins in the city. All but three of them had items stolen. All were unlocked.
We spoke with Deputy Chris Parker who said the Sheriff's Office has taken 11 reports so far on car break ins with items stolen. There are three reports pending. At least 10 residents have reported car break-ins with only spare change or nothing taken, and the residents did not wish to file a report. The line of break-ins extends along Pearl Street Road and includes side roads such as Wortendyke, Read and Hartshorn. One vehicle had more than $1,000 in cash stolen. Another car had credit cards stolen. Both of those crimes are grand larcenies. While some of the radio transmissions reported cars being locked, Parker said so far there is no evidence of forced entry on any of the vehicles. One report of a locked car is still pending.
UPDATE 6 p.m.: The Sheriff's Office has put out a statement saying that over the past couple of weeks deputies and investigators have been dispatched to a large number of larcenies from vehicles in the East Pembroke area. The broken-record request from officials, "lock up your vehicles."
Photos: Investigator Kris Kautz found a good set of fingerprints on a picuup truck on Pearl Street Road.
So why would you lock your
So why would you lock your car, when these were forced break-ins. I would rather have them take what little I have in my car, than have them damage it, and have it go against my insurance (like it always does no matter what they say). How about not keeping valuables in your car like A LOT of money and credit cards!
As the updates say, these are
As the updates say, these are not forced break ins.
Lock your cars... Thats
Lock your cars... Thats encouraging. How about we will put extra patrols out and make every effort to protect the community from these dirtbags? And when we catch them they will have the book thrown at them
These break in have been
These break in have been happening since Sept 24th. From the beginning people have been complaining about the apathetic response from officers. My question is (and I realize this is kinda backpeddling from my pro law enforcement attitude) if we can gather so many police officers for a day long sweep of a neighborhood. Why can't we gather then for a 4 to 6 hour period until we have a few arrests for these car break ins. Remember these are just the break ins that have been reported. I know for a fact that our city council members have contacted by what they characterized as a few victims who haven't bothered to report.
This plus the recent business robberies mean that something has escalated crime here in Batavia and either success has empowered these criminals to escalate. Or lack of response and or presence of police has empowered them.
Either way we are suffering and it only gonna be a matter of time before someone loses their temper and goes off then we have to decide how to deal with vigilantism and or an assault by a resident. Then see who our justice system is gonna prosecute more vigorously a citizen like you or me? Or the criminals we are dealing with.
I don't think people really
I don't think people really do keep a lot of money in their car. They just lie after the crime to negate their deductible.
"I don't think people really
"I don't think people really do keep a lot of money in their car."
You might be on to something, Alvin.
I agree. Exactly how much
I agree. Exactly how much money would you leave in your car? I pretty much do not have more than a few bucks in change. I don't leave anything of value in my car and no expensive sound systems or shopping bags to draw attention.
there must be a new meth lab
there must be a new meth lab up somewhere in the area, the last time this happened, they took down the 3 meth labs in the county and this crap stopped.