Spike in Car Thefts in Kennewick

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By Chelsea Kopta

Summary

The number of stolen cars has doubled in Kennewick since January. Action News investigated and found the numbers are the highest they've been in six months.

Story Published: Mar 9, 2010 at 6:32 PM PST

KENNEWICK, WA -- Marie Wilkinson peers outside her window everyday, eyes fixed on her car. It's a habit now since her family's cars have been broken into four times in a year.

"It's hard to sleep at night. It's hard. I have to check every single noise," she said. "Within the first two weeks we were living here they stole the truck right out of our driveway."

This week, thieves struck her neighborhood again, ransacking cars on the 1800 block of west 12th.

"The glove box was open, the cubby was open and everything was all over the place," Wilkinson described the car after thieves got into it.

These crimes were so new, they weren't even included in the numbers KEPR Action News originally uncovered.Overall, we found there were 14 cars swiped in Kennewick compared to just six the month before. Plus, we found crooks are breaking into roughly 40 cars a month.

Wilkinson's next door neighbor didn't want to go on camera but showed Action News where thieves tried to break into her camper. "It's almost like you want to put a little iron gate up, like a castle. And that's sad. We're considering security cameras," Wilkinson said.

Action News used Kennewick Police's newest online Target Crimes map for reference. February's crime map shows every stolen car, and car that was prowled, in the city. A block of purple squares shows a whole neighborhood on Vista Way and N. Conway that had cars prowled. Police said crooks hit at least a dozen of those cars in a single night. Many were unlocked. Across town on the map, Clearwater and Edison is sprinkled with purple squares and green stars, with the stars representing stolen cars.

Kennewick Police said last month's unusual spike isn't so out of the ordinary if you look at the five-year average. In fact, according to that average, 14 is well below the norm for February.

But that isn't much relief to Wilkinson who still watches out her window.

"It makes for a very uncalm night, she said.

A pair of prowlers were arrested this week on south Kent in Kennewick. One was a juvenile.

And we found crooks are stealing more just your loose change and stereos. GPS units are the hottest-ticket items right now with six stolen so far this year and nearly 40 last year.


RESOURCES:

Kennewick Crime Statistics Website
http://www.ci.kennewick.wa.us/Police/KennewickPoliceCrimeStatistics.asp

February 2010 Target Crimes
http://www.ci.kennewick.wa.us/Police/documents/Feb10TargetCrimes.pdf