LELAND, N.C. (WECT) – Law enforcement agencies all over the country are asking property owners to use the #9pmroutine to protect their belongings from theft.
The #9pmroutine is a reminder to do the following beginning at 9 p.m. each day:
- Removing valuables and firearms from your car
- Lock car doors
- Lock your home doors, garage, and windows
- Turn on outside lights
According to the Leland Police Department, there have been 25 incidents involving vehicles parked in driveways being entered during night time hours. They say many of the incidents involved personal items being stolen like loose change, wallets, and even firearms. One car was even stolen after the keys were left inside the vehicle.
“Every single incident that we’ve had since june first would have been prevented if just the car doors would have been locked,” said Lt. James Almond with the Leland Police Department. “That’s not an end-all, be-all to crime, however, every incident we had it would have prevented that crime.”
It happened at several neighborhoods in the town: Mallory Creek, Snee Farms, and Waterford.
“Take all the valuables out of their vehicle,” said Almond. “That can be purses, wallets, electronics… especially firearms. Take those out of their vehicle, then lock their vehicle. Then they will lock their home and close their garage doors and then turn on any exterior lights that they may need around their home. That would greatly reduce the amount of crime.”
Almond said even though there’s an uptick of these incidents happening in our area right now, this happens everywhere. That’s why it’s so important to also keep your property locked.
“This is not unique to Leland. These are I don’t want to say low level crimes. These are property crimes that occur across the country,” said Almond. “A lot people just say they live in a nice town and some people don’t think they need to lock their car doors, but indeed they do.”
Almond says the police department should have some closure to the investigation of these incidents sometime this week.
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