An alarming rash of car burglaries have been striking Southwest Florida's largest city. Detectives say crooks have been targeting cars in all corners of Cape Coral. The question is, is this a new problem for the Cape or has this been an underling issue for years?
Police departments across southwest Florida are becoming more active on social media hoping to bring urgency to the crime that reports show are on the rise.
Four In Your Corner did some digging and found that from December 14, 2015 to December 14, 2016 there have been nearly 950 total thefts "of" and "from" vehicles within the last year.
Thefts FROM vehicles: 812
Thefts OF vehicles: 126
Not all of the break-ins involve unlocked cars, but Cape Coral council member Richard Leon says most of them are.
"I think it's really important that people understand they have to lock their cars," Leon said. "It keeps getting worse. We've had like 200 in the past month and a half."
Reports show thieves are most likely to commit these crimes between 10 pm and 12 am with the biggest cluster of reported car burglaries taking place in areas of southeast Cape Coral.
"The amount of break-ins we've seen is kind of unique to the times," Leon said. "I don't think we've seen something like this in recent history."
