EAST PEORIA, Ill. — A rash of Thursday night vehicular burglaries opened up an East Peoria Police investigation.
Items were taken from multiple vehicles in the Illinois Central College neighborhood.
One vehicle was stolen, itself.
Those were just the incidents of which the EPPD was aware, said Deputy Chief Rich Brodrick.
“We don’t believe all of them have been reported,” he said.
“Even if [victims] don’t want to pursue anything, we still want to know it did happen so we can keep an eye on that area and kind of keep track of how frequent the problem is.”
Brodrick said the department hadn’t noticed any trend regarding types of vehicles burglarized or types of items stolen.
“It’s very random,” he said.
The string of events led Brodrick to issue a public service announcement, of sorts.
“People just need to make sure they aren’t leaving items in their vehicles that could be used to steal their vehicle,” he said, noting the car that was stolen was swiped right from the victim’s garage.
“If cars are outside, garage door openers shouldn’t be left in them. We have to take the first steps of protecting ourselves and make it a little bit more difficult for somebody to perpetrate a crime like this.”
The stolen vehicle was ultimately recovered, Brodrick said.
While the area where the Thursday night string of crimes took place was expected to be heavily monitored in the proceeding days, residents were asked to report any suspicious activity to the EPPD.
