BARNEGAT – The Barnegat Police Department is asking residents to take precautions as car thefts have increased in the area.
“All of Ocean County has been dealing with car theft rings that come here to steal cars (often high-end cars). Sometimes they steal the cars to commit crimes with them; sometimes they steal them so they can be sold,” Chief Keith Germain said in a statement.
After a recent home burglary, Chief Germain has listed tips to avoid becoming a victim of a car theft. He explained how most car thieves come from outside the community looking for high-end cars that are left unlocked with key fob left inside a majority of the time.
“As the offenders have gotten more brazen, they will enter an unlocked car in a driveway and activate the garage door opener. Voilà, open garage door. The offender now has access to whatever car is kept in the garage (which sometimes has the fob left inside), or in some cases, they’ll walk right inside your home to look for the fob while you’re sleeping,” he said.
He further explained how thieves target this area because residents feel safe, and are more likely to leave their car unlocked because of that.
“Why have they chosen to target our area? Because we generally feel safe here. No one in Newark is leaving their car unlocked and the key fob in the cupholder. But here in Barnegat, where I grew up in a house that never had the front door locked and left both my keys and my wallet in my unlocked car… well, we tend to think we’re immune from that stuff here,” Chief Germain said.
A way to stop these thefts is to simply lock our cars, he said.
“We have great cops, great detectives, and a Prosecutor’s Office that does an excellent job pursuing justice in these cases. But the truth is, as long as there are easy targets here, it’s most likely going to keep occurring,” he said. “There is one theme that you might notice, though. It all starts with unlocked cars. So, if we want it to stop, we simply need to lock our car doors. That’s 99% of the battle.”
Chief Germain is urging residents to lock their car doors. Especially if you have a garage door opener, where you are potentially giving someone access to your home.
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