SEATTLE, Wash. -- An early morning arrest served as a good reminder to always take valuables out of your car. And always lock your car doors.



About 12:20 a.m., officers were dispatched to the 8800 block of 42nd Avenue with report of a car prowler, Seattle police said. Before they could arrive, the call was updated to say the suspect was rummaging through multiple cars, and trying to open locked doors.



Police arrested the suspect after he was positively identified by witnesses.









But the sobering fact remains: there's more car prowls in Seattle than there were five years ago.



One thousand and eighty two car prowl thefts were reported in April, and there were 5,733 year to date through May 31. That's an eight-percent drop year-to-year, and SPD said it continues to treat car prowls as a high priority.



Seattle Police Detective Mark Jamieson calls car prowls "crime of opportunities" that happen year-round.



But as more people head to crowded summer parks, clothes or other valuables are often left in the car. That's when car prowlers strike.



"They'll check parks and do their own kind of surveillance in the parks," Captain Marcia Harnden of the Bellevue Police Department said. "They're watching. When the person goes off into the park they smash the window and pop the trunk."



Police say it takes less than a minute for an experienced car prowler to break into a parked vehicle.









They offer these tips for parking on the street:


























