Police said there have been several car break-ins in Suffield over the last week and they are urging residents not to leave any valuables in their vehicles.
The thieves have broken windows to get into vehicles if they see property inside. They have left when they do not see anything in the vehicles or when sensors turn lights on.
Police said they have some video from home security cameras, but nothing that would help identify the people responsible.
Suffield police say the uptick in break-ins comes in waves. Many people in town say they feel like they're always on high alert.
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One Suffield resident said her car got broken into just a few weeks ago, marking the third time this has happened in a few years.
"Tiring. I think it's tiring. Surprising, no. I’m not surprised," she said.
She installed spotlights to ward off any vandals.
"It's pretty scary because the cars are so close to the house,” she said.
Word has spread in Suffield. Johnathan Xu said he and his neighbors are up-to-date on the topic, saying his area has been victim to car break-ins since last year, and as recently as last night.
"There’s concern about the safety of the neighborhood,” he said. "We figured we must add a camera set up just in case."
Suffield Police Captain Robert Palmer said this batch of break-ins has yielded over a dozen reports last week, and six additional last night.
"Anytime we get an uptick in these cases, we reach out to everybody who's located in our area, the surrounding towns here, over the last probably 48 hours, have had very similar incidents,” Palmer said.
Palmer reminds residents to keep their cars locked at night, not leave any valuables inside them. He also said it can help to install lights and a video camera.
"If you do happen to be working in the hours in the morning and you see something like this, we really advise people not to confront folks that might be in their driveway,” Palmer said.
There have been similar incidents in several surrounding towns in Connecticut and Massachusetts, police said, and they are speaking with other departments as they investigate.
Police ask vehicle owners to remove all valuables from inside your vehicle at the end of the day, do not leave keys inside the car and lock all the car doors every night when you return home.
