Columbus Businesses suffer from car break-ins in the area

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) -There has been a rise in auto burglaries in Columbus lately, and police want car owners and businesses to remember the basics.

It isn’t unusual to see a rise in crime during the summer as more people have more downtime.

But during this time of the year car burglaries seem to be more frequent, but in some recent cases, businesses are the ones suffering.

Just a few weeks ago Champions Towing and Recovery had a few of their customer’s cars broken into.

Now Office Manager Rebecca Farley says they are begging their customers to make sure to take their valuables with them.

“Here lately it has been and we’ve been trying to stress the fact that when people drop their cars off to take their valuables out and maker sure there’s nothing important that you’re leaving in the vehicle,” said Farley.

Even businesses like Carl Hogan Toyota have seen more theft on their lot.

General manager Johnnie Moore says even with surveillance cameras and security you can’t always prevent the worst.

“It happens unfortunately but you’re not expecting it but we’re prepared for it. we have video surveillance inside and outside the entire building 24/7,” said Farley.

And Moore says he is thankful that the Columbus Police department is there when they need them.

“The Columbus police department did an outstanding job. we sent them pictures and video and within hours they called and said we know this guy and they picked him up the next day we are thankful they did such a fantastic job and we can’t thank them enough,” said Moore.

Columbus Police Department, Captain Rick Jones says they will always come when they are needed but most car thefts can be prevented just by locking your door.

“The business when people drop their cars off some of the things that they need to be mindful of is to lock the car doors. It’s the convenience of opportunity and that’s how they are breaking into these cars they are going by basically just pulling on door handles and if the door is open they go inside of it,” said Jones.

Captain Jones says if your car is ever broken into ALWAYS report the crime no matter how big or small the property loss.