Houston car break-ins are common, but preventable

Where in Houston are your mostly likely to be a victim of a crime?



See the neighborhoods with the highest crimes rates, and the worst crimes in each neighborhood ... Where in Houston are your mostly likely to be a victim of a crime?



See the neighborhoods with the highest crimes rates, and the worst crimes in each neighborhood ... Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close Houston car break-ins are common, but preventable 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

Sadly it seems that getting your car broken into is a fact of life living in the Inner Loop.

Most everyone has a story of walking out to their vehicle only to find shards of broken window glass on the ground next to their car. This is then followed by a sinking feeling as you realize what happened.

You immediately do a mental inventory of anything you were silly enough to have left in the vehicle and then begin thinking about replacing the window and the items that are now long gone. It’s an annoyance and above all, a violation of your sense of safety.

Every few weeks there appears to be a perception of a surge in the Montrose and Midtown areas of cars being broken into.

Last week the story of a Houston man, Randy Schaefer, who had an iPad and a large amount of cash stolen from his car in the River Oaks area made it to the front page of Reddit. The suspects posted pictures of themselves holding large amounts of cash and even made a video identifying each other as “hustlers” of the highest order. Once this footage left Reddit and went viral on Twitter and Facebook, time began to run out for the suspects. By Wednesday evening they were both arrested, with many crediting social media in breaking the case.

Hopefully Schaefer’s story has made Houstonians think twice about leaving anything of value in their vehicles.

Sgt. Jim Woods with the Houston Police Department's auto theft division says that burglary from a motor vehicle is one of the only truly preventable crimes there is. With just under 30,000 of these types of crimes committed in the Houston area per year on average, it appears many of us aren’t being as proactive.

“What’s frustrating is that you expect to be able to leave your property in your car without worrying about it,” says Woods. That’s not true anymore, as crime victims will tell you.

“If you can afford to lose it, leave it in your car and you will lose it,” says Woods. Many victims have learned that for a crook even a bag, even it ends up being full of your smelly gym clothes, is worth taking the chance breaking a window for.

“The crooks don’t know what you have in a bag so they are taking the chance that you have something expensive,” Woods says.

Your best bet is to of course leave nothing of value in your car – intrinsic or otherwise – that you would prefer not to end up in the hands of a crook. Even a visible phone charger could lead a crook to taking a chance you have an expensive electronic item somewhere nearby.

In Houston Woods says law enforcement is up against a criminal population that feels it runs less of a chance of being caught for smashing a window and stealing something. It takes them no time and they don’t mind doing this in broad daylight because the chances of getting caught or slim to none, he notes.

Woods says that even Houston police officers and their cruisers have been victim of break-ins. Some crooks will even take a chance breaking the window of a police car to steal something.

“BMV is a misdemeanor until you have been convicted twice, and after that it becomes a felony,” which Woods says makes the stakes lower for crooks. It’s of course easier to break into a car than steal a car. The ill-gotten rewards from a BMV are easier to make a few quick bucks off of too.

Woods says that every part of Houston has the potential of being a hot spot, though areas like Midtown, Downtown, and Montrose don’t benefit from their large transient population.

Crime statistics are only available up until the end of Aug. 2014 on the City of Houston website, but it appears that inside the Inner Loop the parking lots of bars, clubs, and restaurants are favorites for criminals. The hour of the day doesn’t seem to matter either since these are crimes of opportunity.

In Aug. 2014 alone there appeared to be about 27 instances of various forms of theft along Westheimer in the Montrose, Cherryhurst, and Mandell Place neighborhoods.

Meanwhile there over 150 instances of theft in the Midtown District, with many of those along Brazos, Bagby and Gray streets in the same month.

There were only a dozen or so thefts reported in the River Oaks area, where Schaefer’s vehicle was a target.

Things don’t look so good in the Downtown area as the theft stats in Aug. are enough to make you not have as much as a piece of candy in your car. There are at least 150 thefts noted in the area that includes Bayou Place, the Theatre District, the Rice Lofts, and Minute Maid Park.

Over 40 of the thefts reported in the Post Oak Park, Afton Oaks, Highland Village, Weslayan, Greenway Plaza, and Lakewood Church areas were in parking garages and parking lots.

Thirteen thefts were reported in the parking lots in the Galleria Mall area. Though not specifically linked to the mega-mall itself, it’s a warning for shoppers to be aware of their surroundings.

What frustrates Woods the most is that most of those crimes are preventable.

“We’re seeing a lot more people that go shopping, buy something extremely expensive, and then turn around and leave it in their cars visible to others,” Woods says.

When it comes to solving a car break-in, Woods says the chances are just as slim as getting caught.

“It all depends on the solvability factors. If we develop enough information we can catch someone,” Woods says. If police take fingerprints they could work towards possibly taking down a known suspect.

If you keep good records on your property you could get lucky. Sometimes a piece of stolen property can show up weeks, months, or years later and be returned to a victim.