VIDEO: Many Burglary Victims Unwittingly Contributing to Their Troubles

WINSTON COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – We’ve all been guilty of doing it, driving somewhere and getting out of the car without locking it.

It’s easy to forget, but you might want to think twice before you walk off without clicking that lock button.

Law enforcement say over half of car burglaries happen because doors are left unlocked.

Louisville and Winston County are responding to a lot car break-ins in the area, and similar ones have been reported in Lowndes County and Boonville.

If you are a victim of a car burglary, you may have yourself to blame.

“I’d say between eighty to ninety percent of most cars, of things stolen out of cars, that’s left unlocked. You go very seldom where you see a window busted out to get something out of a vehicle. Most of them are just unlocked vehicles,” says Winston County Chief Deputy, Keith Alexander.

From downtown to dirt roads, car break-ins can happen anywhere at any time.

“Out in the county, we had a couple of people out on our county roads there, they called and said, ‘hey, I had a gun come up missing.’ I get out there and they left their vehicles unlocked. You know, you don’t think about it too often. They had one stolen out of it, and he had it covered up with a jacket,” says Alexander.

The newest trend is for thieves to clone your car remotes.

“They can actually read the remote entry on cars, they just came up it with now, and all they do is hit their remote and it unlocks yours; so now they’re talking about make sure you use your inside lock on your vehicle to lock your vehicles, instead of using that remote because that signal can be read and copied,”  says Alexander.

Once thieves get their hands on your things, they are immediately looking for a way to get rid of it.

“We had a vehicle broken into in Noxapater three weeks ago. Through use of confidential informants and friends of mine on the coast, we found out that the property might be in Stone County. Monday, I drove down there and executed a search warrant on a residence and found the items I was looking for,” says Winston County Investigator, Jimmy Lovorn.

“I’m just guessing seventy-five to eighty percent of things that they steal, they turn around and sell them for drugs. I mean, that’s just a part of it. I mean, they just want to get a quick a fix to steal a gun. I’ll sell a gun for $50 dollars and it may be worth no telling what, but they can sell it quick for money to go and buy drugs with it,” says Alexander.

Deputies say if your car gets broken into, don’t touch anything and call law enforcement immediately.