Santa Cruz PD cracks down on car thieves
UPDATE 03/28/18 6:00pm The Santa Cruz Police Department is cracking down on car thieves in the city.
Chief Andy Mills says overnight officers found four occupied stolen vehicles in less than 12 hours.
Early Wednesday morning, Officer Score spotted someone in a stolen car on Ocean Street. Inside was 29-year-old Lindsay Heinzen of Gilroy and 28-year-old Jordan Roe of Santa Cruz.
Both suspects were booked into jail for vehicle theft, outstanding warrants, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
“Officers learned the owner could not get a ride to pick up her car. Officer Bridges quickly volunteered to pick up the owner to reunite her with her car so it would not get towed,” said SCPD.
Chief Mills says while sometimes car owners can do all the right things and still get their car stolen, it is often a crime of opportunity, “really there’s two issues, one is make sure that we don’t leave keys in the
car, including hidden keys. Because people will go through cars and scour through them and find out if there is a key, and they can use that to take the car. The second thing I think is also important is if it’s a car that’s easily stealable then use a club or something of that nature to immobilize the car somehow.”
On cold mornings sometimes people will leave their cars on to warm up while they are inside, but even that can lead to someone stealing it from the driveway.
Santa Cruz resident John Kraintz says its something that makes him feel uneasy.
Kraintz has only lived in Santa Cruz for 2 months and has already had some camping gear stolen out of his truck. He says moving here from a small, he’s had to make some adjustments, “I always double check to make sure my car is locked, my girlfriend is always harping on me because I’m from a small town and we don’t lock our doors and vehicles, because it’s a tiny farming town I’m from. I moved here and I have to lock everything, everywhere I go so it’s a little bit of an uneasy feeling.”
According to Santa Cruz Crime Report website there have been 20 reported stolen cars in March. That’s down from 34 in Februrary.
PREVIOUS STORY:
The Santa Cruz Police Department is cracking down on car thieves in the city.
The Department said it’s recovered four cars in less than 12 hours.
While on patrol early Wednesday morning, Officer Score spotted someone in a stolen car on Ocean Street. Inside was 29-year-old Lindsay Heinzen of Gilroy and 28-year-old Jordan Roe of Santa Cruz.
Both suspects were booked into jail for vehicle theft, outstanding warrants, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
“Officers learned the owner could not get a ride to pick up her car. Officer Bridges quickly volunteered to pick up the owner to reunite her with her car so it would not get towed,” said SCPD.
Coming up at 5 and 6 p.m. KION’s Ashley Keehn has more on what the department is doing to fight theft issues in Santa Cruz.
