Police Chief Joe Gaudett says it takes a few minutes to warm up your car, a fraction of that for a thief to steal it.
“Old habits die hard,” Gaudett says. “And as the mercury drops, we see an increase in cars being stolen with keys as people warm up their vehicles in the morning.”
Gaudett adds that it is a myth that warming up your car for a few minutes is necessary to prevent some unspecified damage. And it is a fact that if you warm up your car unattended as you finish your morning coffee, you run the risk of it being gone when you come out of your house.
According to Gaudett, police every year see an increase in reports of cars stolen “with keys” as the temperature drops. Many times, that occurs as people warm up their cars outside their homes. Sometimes it happens when people run into a store for five minutes with their car running outside.
“This is a universal issue. Everyone has done it. I’ve done it,” said Gaudett. “But it truly is rolling the dice. You can do it 50 times without a problem. What about number 51. People work too hard to risk losing their cars because of five minutes of carelessness.:
Currently, police are searching for 12 vehicles stolen “with keys,” a quarter of the total number of stolen vehicles.
I appreciate seeing numbers along with the narrative. The Chief is telling us there are 48 stolen cars on the screen right now with Bridgeport Police. Over what time period? And during that period how many were recovered? That would help us determine a rate of recovery per stolen car.
Twelve cars were stolen with keys in the car but not all of them were due to warming up the cars as some were while people ran into a store, and most probably were folks who leave keys in their car. How big a problem when 75% of the concern is for cars without keys in them? Do they get any attention? Any wise words for those folks who are out of luck?
Perhaps real attention is on the fact with a high mil rate, Bridgeport taxpayers are suffering real discrimination with higher taxes than surrounding towns as well as higher insurance rates. So how about hearing it for old but reliable ‘beaters’ that get you where you want to go, even in the snow, but when it comes to attractiveness to criminals, they just look at it and say NO? Time will tell.