Car break-ins common

Warm summer weather brings with it a rash of car break-ins. From downtown Superior to Wisconsin Point, anyone's car can be a target.

"All parts of the city seem to be susceptible to it," said Capt. Matt Markon of the Superior Police Department.

In the stack of police reports available for review Monday, three such thefts were listed. Two took place in East End, the other was a few blocks from the University of Wisconsin-Superior. One man reported his vehicles being rummaged through on a regular basis, but said the only thing missing was some loose change. Another man had his wallet, MP3 player and GPS stolen from his unlocked truck. In the third incident, the victim reported more than $700 in cash missing from his unlocked Honda Accord.

You don't have to be a victim. According to Markon, one way to prevent a break-in is to lock your vehicle.

"These thieves will go from car to car trying doors," he said. "When they find one open, they ransack the inside. They'll go into an unlocked vehicle for anything under the sun."

Markon also urged owners not to leave anything of value in their car.

If something valuable is in plain sight through the vehicle window, it might give them incentive to break in even if the car is locked.

"Keeping your valuables locked up and out of sight is certainly best," the police captain said.

Superior Police respond to hundreds of car break-in calls every summer. Most of the thieves who steal from cars are juveniles or young adults, Markon said, and they're looking for change or small, easily portable electronic devices like Ipods and cell phones. Markon said the car thieves tend to move around, so extra patrols are not always the answer. Right now, for example, East End has a large number of such reports.

Extra patrols could spend all night in East End, Markon said, just to find that car thieves were hitting another part of town.

Prevention is the key to stalling break-ins, according to police. To keep from being a target this summer, residents should lock their cars and keep valuables out of sight.