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Vehicle thefts nearly double from 2016 to 2017 in Lethbridge

Mar 8, 2018 | 2:28 PM

LETHBRIDGE – Over the last two years, the number of vehicles stolen in Lethbridge has jumped from 172 in 2016, to 319 in 2017.

That’s why the Lethbridge Police Service is urging people to be more vigilant. Inspector Tom Ascroft says a lot of the thefts that are occurring in Lethbridge are preventable.

“The thing we’re finding is a lot of them [vehicles] have the keys left in the vehicle, so the vehicle is either running or people are hiding the keys in the vehicle, and it’s really not an effective strategy. Don’t do that.”

The thefts, he explains, are generally a ‘crime of opportunity,’ and most vehicles stolen are recovered locally.

“Mostly this is people stealing cars to go from A to B because the cars are running in front of them. So, in terms of crime prevention and things we can stop and deal with a lot better, don’t make it easy for someone to steal your car.”

Ascroft adds that there’s no one area of the city that’s being targeted, nor are there generally any specific types of vehicles thieves take. Police haven’t found any large chop shops and they don’t believe the vehicles are being taken across the border and sold.  He says thieves will just take whatever they can find if it’s easy. That includes valuables in the vehicles they steal.

“We have a drug problem. And the people that use the drugs have to buy the drugs and they’re not…. for the most part they aren’t able to maintain employment and their resources are exhausted fairly quickly, so they turn to property crimes.”

According to LPS, of the incidents that have occurred this year so far, many involved repeat victims where keys had been left inside the vehicle.