Larry Gutridge

Lock the doors to your car, your van, or your truck.

That’s the word today and a warning really from Larry Gutridge, the crime prevention specialist at the Bravo District, which encompasses all of Lehigh and north to the river.

“We are seeing an increase in crime in the last few weeks in Lehigh of vehicles being broken into because people are not locking their cars,” Gutridge said.

“You can lose your valuables if you have left them in your car and hiding them won’t work,” he warned. Gutridge said thieves are looking for anything electronic and if you have money in your car, it’s going to be taken. People sometimes leave their cell phones in their car or a GPS positioning device, satellite radios, and collections of CDs.

“You’re inviting thieves to rob your car and remove everything of any value … so we are trying to get the world out to the public to lock their cars at home. It’s a habit to get into and if you do that you can really cut down the instances of cars being broken into,” he said.

Gutridge said suspects will enter a neighborhood perhaps late in the evening or early morning hours when it is dark and go from house to house and see if the doors are unlocked. If they are left unlocked, culprits will jump inside and within minutes take everything they find of value. He said such things can be hocked or sold for money to buy drugs.

The Citizen publishes daily police reports on Lehighacrescitizen.com and then a compilation of all the crime in Lehigh in the Wednesday weekly edition. When readers see a charge of burglary of a “conveyance,” it means someone has broken into a vehicle.

Another warning from Gutridge is that if you leave your car in the driveway with the doors unlocked a thief can open your car door and grab the device to open your garage door and if your door from the garage into your house is not locked, you can be robbed. People often don’t lock their doors to the garage because they feel that with garage doors down, their house is safe. But that may not be the case for a thief who knows how to break into a garage.

“We can’t overemphasize how important it is for folks to get into the habit of locking the doors of the vehicles they drive. If you don’t lock t hose doors, you’re asking for trouble,” he said.

Over the past weeks, Gutridge said there has been an increase of breaking into cars that are unlocked in neighborhoods along Beth Stacey Blvd., but he stressed that the crime is happening all over the community.

Most late model automobiles and other vehicles now have a device that is attached to your key chain and if you push the top button, your doors will lock and the horn will blow to let you know the car has been secured, Gutridge said.

“If you don’t look the doors and you have left a camera of a cell phone inside on the seat, it’s a good possibility that your camera and cell phone will be gone when you go out to start your car the following morning,” Gutridge said.

Over and over again, Gutridge said the proper way you can help fight people who break into cars is to develop the habit of locking that door.

“And people should always lock the doors of their vehicles when they are in a parking lot of a shopping center or at any local business,” he said. “If not, you are asking for trouble.”

And keys left inside ignitions are a great invitation for someone to commit a grand theft of a vehicle.

Gutridge said that if you witness a crime taking place, you should call 911. But if you see something suspicious outside your house day or night, something that just doesn’t seem right, you are encouraged to call 4777-1100 and report it to the Sheriff’s Office.

“Our deputies would rather you do that and not ignore it,” he said. “They do not mind getting calls from folks who think something suspicious may be happening, like unfamiliar cars in your neighborhood or people walking who you have never seen before,” he said.

He encourages folks who get up overnight because they can’t sleep or if they have to go to the bathroom of to the kitchen to get a drink to always look out their windows and see if anything is happening.

“And if you see kids at 3 a.m. on the streets, you know they shouldn’t be there … that is a good reason to call the Sheriff’s Office. They will respond to your calls,” Gutridge said.

“We really need everyone’s eyes and ears because law enforcement officers can’t be everywhere,” he said.

“You are not bothering us if you feel something is not right about what you see. We encourage you to pick up that phone and call and tell us of any suspicious activity,” Gutridge reiterated.

He said recently a call from a resident led to the arrest of an individual and he was linked to 13 cases of other crimes.

When you’re shopping at a food market like Walmart, Publix and Winn-Dixie, he said folks should make sure their cars are locked and when they come out of the store and see activity of suspicious people near their vehicle, go back into the store and ask the manager to provide someone to help you to your car.

And while he was talking about shopping, he touched on another topic about how women’s purses can so quickly be snatched.

“When a woman is shopping, she can put her purse into the cart and pile the groceries on top of it. That is one way of making it almost impossible for someone to get to your purse. When you get to checkout, your purse and wallet will be the last things taken out of the cart when you pay the checker.

And when you go to your car, make sure there are no suspicious people around you. Unlock your door and put your purse inside, lock the doors except for the one you have open and then unload your groceries, keeping in mind that you are aware of what is happening around you.

“You know that device that you have your car ignition keys on has a “panic button” and it is one way to draw attention if you are robbed or being threatened.

“It’s also a good thing to use if someone is breaking into your house. Hit that panic button and it can be a deterrent to would-be criminals and then call 911,” he said.

Gutridge has been with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office for 4 ½ years, having joined the force in 2007. He has spent that time working out of the Bravo Substation on Homestead Rd.

He is available to speak at neighborhood watch groups and clubs and organizations and offer tips of how you can help to prevent crime. Since he has joined the department, there are around 80 neighborhood watch groups and he cautions them to remain active.

He’ll tell you things that will make you smarter than some of the criminals who prey on folks and with that information, suspects can be arrested and the neighborhood becomes a safer place in which to live.

For more information Crime Prevention Specialist Larry Gutridge can be reached at 239-477-1802 or lgutridge@sheriffleefl.org.