Redmond Police warn of spike in car prowls



REDMOND, Wash.  --  Redmond Police have a  warning for drivers after a record spike in the number of car prowls; lock your car.

In the Education Hill neighborhood --- in a stretch of a week--- police got 26 reports of car prowls.  Drivers in the area are surprised to hear to hear the numbers. And admit they don't even lock their cars up.

“Usually, I don't even lock my car because when I was a kid a policeman told me one time leave your door or window unlocked and they won’t break out your windows.  Not anymore. The worlds getting to be a bad place again,” says Skip Collier of Redmond.

Redmond Police say you must lock your car. Nineteen of the 26 cars that were prowled were left unlocked.  Most of these crimes happened during the night.  Police say a car prowler is more likely to walk away from an unlocked car than to smash a window.

To put this spike into perspective, Redmond's larceny crime theft rate, which includes car prowls, is slightly higher than the state average.