Vehicle burglaries up 38% in Fresno in 2021. Leave nothing in car, police warn
Two suspects were arrested Monday morning in Fresno’s Tower District in an auto burglary — a crime that has surged 38% from 2020.
Fresno police recently issued an alert about the crime, which two years ago did not survive an effort in the state Senate to toughen the law targeting the break-ins.
Monday’s car burglary took place in a parking lot near East Fern and North Maroa avenues, where the target was a black Honda Element with Colorado license plates.
A passerby heard the sound of a window smashing, and saw two men inside it filling bags with what they found. The witness pursued the pair and called police as they ran west from the scene.
Police detained the suspects, 25 and 31 years old, several blocks away and took them into custody. Fresno police Lt. Bill Dooley said officers were checking for warrants to see if the men were wanted on other charges.
Police warn those who park cars on public streets not to leave anything inside when they leave them unattended, but victims often find smashed windows even when there was nothing visible.
Even with nothing taken, repairing a smashed widow can be costly, and in the case of the crime Monday, the owner may face expensive tow charges because police say they cannot leave the damaged vehicle on the street if the owner can’t be located.
Car burglaries in Fresno in 2021
Dooley said there have been 3,798 auto burglaries in the city this year, compared to 2,755 this time in 2020. The numbers from the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office and Clovis Police Department were not immediately available. Dooley also said the numbers trended down in the past month by 7%.
In 2019, Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, sought to toughen California’s enforcement of the auto break-in law by targeting what he described as a loophole, which requires that victims testify that their car doors were locked before the suspect could be convicted of burglary. The measure did not survive a vote to become law.
This story was originally published December 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM.