HUBER HEIGHTS — Neighbors are worried after a doorbell camera video captured thieves trying to break into their cars.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 11:00, Huber Heights police said these break-ins are happening across the Miami Valley.
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Thieves will go around and check for unlocked cars. Then they will try to start them, hoping the owners left their key fobs inside the car.
People who live on Macon Avenue said they’re feeling uneasy knowing this is happening on their street.
“It’s kind of spooky that somebody’s out here creeping around your house at five o’clock in the morning,” Susan Peoples said.
Susan Peoples shared a video with Huber Heights showing someone trying to open a car door and running off early Saturday morning.
“I talked to the neighbors down the street, and we all have videos so we can all compare videos and everything,” she said.
Just about every home on Macon Avenue has outside cameras.
People’s neighbors caught two people getting out of a car, running up driveways, trying to open car doors.
“They had already turned it into the police because they had seen it as well,” Peoples said.
Huber Heights police are also concerned.
“I’ve had been completely shocked at how many weapons I’ve actually seen left in unlocked vehicles,” Huber Heights Police Officer Drew Olinger said.
Olinger shared the warning on social media.
He said that’s because the potential crimes get serious pretty quickly.
“What starts as a simple property crime now can result in a theft of a firearm. It can result in the theft of the motor vehicle. It can even result in burglary too if somebody’s garage door openers and they’re unattended,” Olinger said.
The security video that News Center 7 saw didn’t show any strangers getting into any cars on Saturday.
Peoples said her neighbors usually lock their cars.
She said normally her husband is up that early.
“They just got lucky. That’s all I got to say: they just got lucky. Because he would have came around the corner, and they wouldn’t have been happy,” she said.
She’d like to see more deterrents to prevent crime.
“I wish we had some kind of device that if they touched the car, it like blasted or zapped them real good,” Peoples said.
Until that happens, Huber Heights police advise everyone to lock their cars.
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