Several cars have been burglarized in Pine Hollow on May 21st.  These thefts occurred on Pine  Hollow Drive and Pine Valley where the vehicles were unlocked during the night. Luckily, the Pearland police department was able to later recover items that were stolen.  Here are some tip on how to prevent your car from being a target:

First…Lock your doors and close your windows to deter the “opportunity” for someone to take items from your car.

Choose a parking space: There are many types of places to park. You can park on the street, in an open lot, in a garage, or in a parkade (these are often underground, and a favourite target for thieves).  The ideal parking space involves as much traffic around it as possible, be it foot traffic or other vehicles passing by, the more people around, the less likely your vehicle is to be broken into.  The ideal parking space is also in a decent area, where there are few homeless (as they are the most often ones to break into a vehicle), and the best spaces are between exits. The more effort, and the more risk, the less chance that anything will happen to your vehicle.

Make sure that you have a car alarm installed.  This may seem like a no-brainer, but thieves are less likely to break into a vehicle that has an alarm, as they want as little attention

Remove all valuables.  This also seems like a no-brainer, but people leave things in their vehicles all the time, remember: No Profit, No Crime.  To clarify, this DOES NOT mean “let’s just put everything in the trunk” as most trunks are very easily accessible

Leave the vehicle as open looking as possible.  This means that you should always leave your centre console, glove compartment, and any other “cubby holes” open, so that when a thief looks into your vehicle, they will see that there is nothing worth taking, and they will move on to the next vehicle

If you do become a theft victim, make sure that the first thing you do is file a police report, the sooner the better, and pay attention to details.  Try to figure out how the vehicle was broken into (eg. Window taken off the frame, pry marks on the window frame, or a completely smashed window).  Call the company that owns the lot that you are parked in and report the incident.