Smash-And-Grab Thieves Go Back To School Too

CORAL GABLES, FL — Miami area children returned to their classrooms last week, but they apparently weren't the only ones. Area police say smash-and-grab thieves have also gone back to school and are particularly active this time of year. Assume they may be watching you when you drop off or pick up your children.

"The first — usually two weeks — it's just case after case," Officer Kelly Denham of the Coral Gables Police Department told Patch. "They spend all day doing counter surveillance. They watch in the parking lot and when the mother grabs the Pre-K kid and takes them inside, there’s no purse. Most men assume a woman takes a purse everywhere."

She said that one such incident occurred on Aug. 22 outside an elementary school when a mother left items inside her car as she stopped in hier child's school for a moment.

By the time she returned, the right front window had been smashed and her daughter's turquoise backpack and pink lunchbox were gone.

A similar incident occurred outside a Starbucks when a woman left her Louis Vuitton purse sitting on the passenger seat of her Mercedes. She returned six minutes later only to find the passenger window smashed, her purse missing along with $100 in cash and her driver's license.

As a result of such incidents, some people are hesitant to lock their car doors but that's not the answer either.

"People don’t like locking their cars because they are afraid they are going to get their windows smashed," Denham conded. "They will not smash their window unless there’s a reward — unless I see a computer, a gun, a Louis Vuitton purse, something that is worth me taking a risk and breaking the window, and having somebody see me break the window or hear me break the window and getting caught. I’m not going to break the window for a pair of sunglasses sitting on the front seat. It’s not worth it."

Denham and other Miami area law enforcement officials suggest removing everything of value from your vehicle and locking it up even if you are only going to be away for a few minutes.

"Take everything out. Lock your car doors. Take your purse with you no matter where you go. Don’t leave it in the car," she advised. "Put them in the trunk of your car where they are out of plain view."

Denham said that thieves lurk around school parking lots or look inside cars as they drive past on bicycles. "Bad guys look in cars and say 'oh my gosh there’s a Louis Vuitton purse. It’s worth the reward. Let me take a chance.'"

She said that parents are often oblivious to what's going on around them.

"What happens is, the bad guys sit in these parking lots and they blend in as a parent. You don’t know if it’s a parent or not," she added. "It's rush, rush, rush, rush, rush. And you’re not really paying attention to the guy sitting in the car of the parking lot of your preschool. I don’t know. Is it a new parent? Is he just waiting for his wife to come back after she drops off their daughter?"

Photo courtesy of Coral Gables Police Department