LYNCHBURG, Va. – Lynchburg police are investigating 30 car break-ins in the city. Police say many of these incidents happened around 3:30 Monday morning. Police need the public's help with any information that could lead to an arrest.
The neighborhood in Hood Street in Lynchburg is quiet right now, but at night it's a different story. “I’m so used to leaving my purse and everything in my vehicle because I'm a get up and go type of person,” said resident Crystal Jones.
"The break-in have to do with groups of what appears to be juveniles maybe young adults testing cars during the night time to see if they're open,” Lt. David Gearhart with Lynchburg police said.
Lynchburg police are looking into 30 different cases of items being stolen out of cars in areas like Hood Street, Fleetwood Drive, and other streets in the new town home subdivision.
"So the larcenies occurring out of vehicles and generally speaking it is from unlocked vehicles,” Gearhart said.
In surveillance video obtained by police from one of the alleged crimes shows four people on standby around a truck and one person taking items out of it. At the end of the video you see all five suspects walk away together. "There’s no indication that any of these crimes have held to anybody being hurt or in danger, but it is annoying, it is illegal and people's items are being taken out of these cars,” Gearhart said.
Police can't say whether the break-ins are all related, but do say there's been little damage to the cars and generally spare change and GPS items are what's been taken. Gearhart says, "Again, I think it’s an easy fix. If we can get the community to just leave items of value in the car and lock their car. Much of this will probably go away." Jones adds, “For now on I'm just gonna take my purse on in the house. Make sure my vehicles are locked and everything else."
Lynchburg police encourage people to contact Detective R. Miller with the Lynchburg Police Department at 434-455-6160, or call Crime Stoppers at 888-798-5900.