Police warn of increase in Goose Creek car break-ins
GOOSE CREEK, S.C. (WCBD)- Car break-ins are the most frequent crime that the Goose Creek Police Department says that they are dealing with recently.
Police Chief LJ Roscoe says that she has seen a rise in these crimes in her community, across the Lowcountry and the state.
“It’s basically a crime of opportunity. People are leaving their car door unlocked and people are just walking through neighborhoods and checking door handles,” said Chief Roscoe.
The top cop in Goose Creek says that thieves, who police say wear gloves to prevent any finger prints from being collected, are stealing guns from unlocked cars in neighborhoods. That adds concern onto the issue for the police.
Some of the people who have had firearms stolen could not provide police with a serial number of the gun. That, according to Chief Roscoe, makes it hard for police to track the culprit and gun down.
“Without a serial number we can’t put in the system,” said Chief Roscoe. “Hypothetically let’s say that another agency pulls somebody over and they have a gun in the car and they run the serial number. Even though that gun was stolen from a car in Goose Creek it’s going to come back as not stolen.”
Another valuable that’s being stolen from people’s driveways are cars, sometimes not just one.
“What we are seeing as a result of that is cars being stolen because people are leaving the key fob to the car inside the car with the car door unlocked. Or they’ll have two cars in the driveway and they’ll leave the key fob to the second car in the first car with the car door unlocked,” said Chief Roscoe.
To prevent these crimes, police have a simple solution. They say to lock your home and car doors every night at 9 p.m. Police will speak to the public about this at a Crime Prevention Meeting on Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m.
“Just lock your car,” said Chief Roscoe. “Officers understand that a crime is a crime. But, we’re not in a position to leave our cars unlocked and certainly not when you have a firearm in the vehicle.”
