Sioux Falls Police Sound the Alert for People to Lock Their Doors

Sioux Falls has an ever-growing problem at the moment, and it's called car burglaries.

There has been a rash of car break-ins in pretty much every region of the city over the past few months, forcing the Sioux Falls Police Department to once again remind residents to please remember to lock their car doors.

One of the most recent car break-ins occurred on the southeast side of the city on Friday (October 6).  A Sioux Falls woman forgot to lock her car doors upon returning home from grocery shopping and is now missing a number of items that were stolen from her vehicle sometime during the overnight hours.

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Ashley Lindquist told Dakota News Now, she woke up the following morning to find a bunch of papers next to her unlocked vehicle in the driveway. That's when she knew something was not right. She opened her car door and immediately noticed the glove box was wide open and various items inside the vehicle were missing.

According to Dakota News Now, gone missing were her son's video game consoles, along with a set of rings she had recently taken to a jeweler to get cleaned.

Normally Lindquist parks her Honda Pilot in the garage each night, that's why she forgot to lock her vehicle last Friday, and now she's paying the price for her forgetfulness.

Lindquist told Dakota News Now, “I don’t think about locking my car when I get home, because I usually pull it in the garage. We used to live in McKennan Park, where our garage was too small to even fit our vehicle. So I would occasionally lock it there, but not always, and people would talk about break-ins all the time. Then we moved down here to the southeast side, and I never would think it would happen in this type of neighborhood."

The Sioux Falls PD told Dakota News Now, that they are continuing to do their best to find the suspects responsible for the rash of burglaries that is plaguing the city right now.

According to Sam Clemens with the Sioux Falls Police Department, the best line of defense against a burglary is to always remember to lock your doors. In most cases, burglars will take the easiest route to a break-in, which is generally an unlocked door.

Recovering the items that are taken in burglaries can also be a challenging and frustrating process. Typically the PD and residents are forced to keep a close eye on area pawn shops for anything that looks like it might have been stolen.

Sometimes that works, but oftentimes the stolen items are never recovered.

Again, the best way to prevent a break-in of any kind is to always remember to lock your doors.

Having a home and car security system is another great deterrent if possible.

Source: Dakota News Now