Cops to grab unlocked stuff from cars in East Rock area — for safekeeping

NEW HAVEN >> If your computer is missing from your unlocked car, it may not be an opportunistic thief who snatched it.

That important electronic device could be in the New Haven police property room, retrieved by your local walking beat officer.

Stymied as to what to do to get residents to take seriously repeated police warnings to lock their vehicles and not leave valuables in them, Lt. Herbert Sharp said they are going to try something new in his policing district.

Sharp, manager for the East Rock neighborhood, said confiscating goods that are invitations to thieves is one of the six exceptions in Connecticut law to the requirement for a search warrant.

“It’s called a caretaker,” he said of the initiative he wants to implement this month.

“When it comes to a car, if there is something in plain view that is of value, and the car is unlocked, law enforcement can go into the car and retrieve that item and take it into the property (room) and place it where it is safe,” Sharp told residents at the most recent meeting of the East Rock Management Team.

He said this is the time of year for increased car break-ins and packages stolen from porches. Sharp said they had eight car break-ins in East Rock in a week.

Sharp said they will run the plate number of the car to try to reach the owner. If they can’t, the police will take the property, lock the car door and leave a receipt informing them who has the item and what time to come and pick it up.

Sharp said this plan does two things.

“The bad guy is not going to break into the car and be able to take that item. It inconveniences the person to come down and pick up the property,” the lieutenant said.

That inconvenience is a kind of tough love approach that reinforces the safety message.

“Maybe next time they won’t leave their stuff in plain view,” Sharp said.

Kevin McCarthy, a former chair of the management team, suggested a hypothetical where someone leaves a prescription in a bag in the car and then comes out to find it is gone.

Sharp said if a thief takes them, the victim can get a new prescription, but that medicine, depending on what it is, can quickly be sold on the street.

He said generally speaking, you will not get stolen items back when you are a victim of a burglary.

It was suggested by a resident that “the odds of your guys (the police) taking the bags are higher than a burglar taking the bag.”

“That depends on the day, the time. It just depends,” Sharp said.

Sharp said the city didn’t want to put up signs warning people because it makes the neighborhood look bad.

The preventive messages fall on deaf ears given the large number of transient students who move into the area for a short period of time, he said.

He said dealing with the break-ins requires getting people’s attention.

“That behavior, either we are going to allow it or we are going to do something proactively,” Sharp reasoned.

The district manager said East Rock is a walkable community. A burglar can just fit in, carrying a backpack with stolen items. Now that it gets dark earlier, it is easier to get away with this type of crime.

He said thieves have “window punchers,” a metal pen they use to pop the window, reach in and grab what’s inside.

Dick Lyons, a former alder, suggested the Yale police send out messages warning students they are the primary victims.

“How you get the message out there, it’s an intriguing idea. I’m not betting the farm that it’s perfect,” Lyons said of Sharp’s idea.

The police lieutenant said he would measure to see if there is a drop in these kinds of break-ins after the policy is in place.

Another resident was more direct.

“Not to sound harsh, but if you are a dumb (person) ... and leave your computer in the car, you deserve to have it stolen. Don’t you guys have more important things to do?” she asked the lieutenant.

In Sharp’s view, you want to stem these easy thefts because when someone gets away with it, it encourages them to advance to burglaries, robberies and then homicides.

“What you have to do is look at those lower crimes,” Sharp said. “Individuals who commit those crimes will always statistically commit more heinous crimes. ... We have to at least address it. It’s a billion-dollar industry,” he said of break-ins with a loss of electronic equipment.

He said the problem of car break-ins has been a two-decade problem in East Rock.

If the neighborhood wants to ditch his plan after it goes into effect for two months, Sharp said, he would drop it.

The proposal will be spread through a listserv for the 19th Ward and through block watch groups.

To further protect your electronic devices and other things, such as bicycles, Sharp recommended that residents take a photo of the identifying number and save it.

Police regularly check pawn shops for goods and the ID number could match the owner to the stolen goods. That number would be given to the officer making out the burglary report.

If there is a GPS capability on a computer, he said they could activate it, particularly if a resident has important documents on it.

One woman thought it would backfire on the police and engender ill will.

“I think anything we are going to do is going to be difficult. I think that we need to make an effort to resolve this issue instead of saying to ourselves we have become accustomed to something ... and it’s OK. It’s not OK ... We’ll see how it works. If it doesn’t work and the stats don’t come down ... then we move onto something else,” Sharp said.