August Burglaries Twice The Number Reported In July

Reports of burglaries and stolen cars piled up at a torrid pace as property crime in the Spokane Valley continued to rise during the month of August.

Burglary reports in the Valley soared to 111 - nearly double the July total, according to Spokane County Sheriff’s Department statistics.

About 60 percent of the 83 vehicles reported stolen county-wide were swiped in the Valley, said Sgt. Gary Smith, who heads the property crime division for the Sheriff’s Department.

“Most definitely the highest I’ve ever seen,” Smith said.

The south Valley areas of Dishman and Opportunity continued to lead the way for burglaries, logging 39 residential burglaries. West Valley businesses were the hardest hit commercially as merchants west of Millwood and Dishman reported 10 burglaries.

Smith said carelessness on the part of some Valley residents has resulted in an increase in what he called “crimes of opportunity.” Open doors, windows or other unforced methods of entry were the cause of 59 of the home burglaries.

“We’re getting a number of vehicle prowlings and burglaries because doors are unlocked,” Smith said. Several of the over 200 vehicle burglaries also resulted from windows left open and doors left unlocked.

Four home burglaries reported within blocks of each other near Trentwood were representative of the growing crime problem. Burglars snatched belongings from three houses on the 16300 blocks of East Rich and East Heroy. A fourth was burgled on the 13300 block of East Rich.

In two of those four, no force was necessary to enter the house.

Many of the vehicles stolen were also easy targets, Smith said. Doors were left unlocked and, in some cases, keys left in the car.

Smith blamed the increase in property crime on the surge in the drug trade in the Valley.

“A lot of what we’re finding is drug-related activity,” Smith said.

Burglars are looking for anything they can grab and sell quickly. Among the items missing from the Trentwood houses were compact disc players, video cassette recorders and stereo equipment - also a trend.

“We seem to go in shifts of things (taken),” Smith said. “VCRs and CD players get popular for a while, then they go onto something else.”

Writing down the serial numbers of electronic equipment and other valuables helps increase the possibility the Sheriff’s Department will be able to recover stolen items, Smith said.

, DataTimes