The Riley County Police Department recorded 31 vehicle burglaries in September — a 342.9% increase from September 2023 and the highest monthly total this year, according to RCPD’s Monthly Report.
Ashley Tokoi, RCPD public information officer, said it is normal to see an increase in vehicle burglaries in winter months.
“One, because of holiday shopping,” Tokoi said. “People go shopping, they leave things in the car within sight. There’s also the hustle and bustle of all the holidays where people genuinely forget to lock their doors. Everyone’s in a hurry, all that sort of stuff. The other factor with the winter months that people don’t think about is there’s less daylight. It’s a lot easier to break in, it’s a lot easier to go undetected.”
Tokoi said RCPD identified a few specific suspects committing many of the recent vehicle burglaries.
“There’s two or three people that are doing the vast majority of these, and we are pretty sure that it’s [these people] … We just don’t have enough to file a case against them at this time, but we are tracking those two-three notable people.
Tokoi said in this case, burglars break into cars to feed an addiction.
“They’ll just take anything,” Tokoi said. “You may think, ‘Oh, I just have spare change in my car.’ Crime is very personal. … It doesn’t matter that they’re taking ten dollars worth of change. It’s still a very personal thing, so don’t leave change out even, because that’s enticing.”
According to the monthly report, 19 of 31 robbed vehicles were left unlocked. Tokoi said locking your vehicle is the best way to avoid a break-in.
“We’re not having windows broken out, we’re not having locks picked, we’re not having any of that stuff,” Tokoi said.
Tokoi said being mindful of where you park can also deter burglars.
“We also talk about parking in well-lit areas,” Tokoi said. “That doesn’t always matter, but it does help. It is a deterrent. The reason I know it doesn’t always matter is because we had a lot of vehicle burglaries up at The Links [apartment complex] earlier this year. For the most part, their parking lots are pretty well-lit, so you’re thinking, ‘Why would it be happening there?’ Well, rhyme or reason I don’t know. The other thing is if you happen to have a Ring cam or any kind of home security device, and you don’t have a garage, park where that device can see the vehicle and that’s a huge deterrent.”
The Links management could not be reached for comment.
Ben Waymire, junior in athletic training and rehabilitation science, said burglars attempted to break into his car at his apartment’s lot in September and broke his side mirror.
“It was Sept. 6,” Waymire said. “… I mostly park in the back, and that’s usually fine, but the one day it happened I parked in the main lot, and that’s where it happened, so I haven’t parked there since.”
Waymire said having cameras around could decrease crime against apartment residents.
“I had to file an insurance claim, and it definitely would’ve helped if there were cameras, like at least building cameras, but there wasn’t any at all,” Waymire said. “… It would’ve just been nice because we didn’t really know who it was. We kind of suspected, but obviously when we filled out the police report it would’ve been nice if there was concrete evidence.”
Sasha More, assistant manager of Prime Place Apartments, said its parking lots “don’t have cameras at this time.”
“It [vehicle burglary] has not increased to my knowledge,” More said. “At this time, we have not had any issues with that.”
Tokoi said victims of vehicle burglary should always contact RCPD.
“You can call the non-emergency number,” Tokoi said. “… We had a Snickers bar stolen the other day, and we took a report for that just because we’re interested in patterns. We’re interested in where the crimes are happening. We do maps because we are very data-driven. As insignificant as it may seem to some, it’s very significant to us.”
