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City of Athens Police Department

Technology May Be Assisting in Athens Car Break-Ins

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ATHENS, OH– Thirty-two vehicles have been broken into in Athens in the last month. No windows were broken, no doors were forced. That has Athens police thinking the offenders have a special method to break into the cars without attracting notice.

In addition to the lack of damage, in most cases the only items stolen from the vehicles have been of small value that cannot be tracked, such as coins and gloves.

Athens Car Break-In Locations

A majority of the break-ins have taken place on

  • Stimson Avenue
  • East State St.
  • Home Road
  • The West side, from Court Street toward West State St.
  • Ground Avenue.

The cars being targeted have belonged to both Ohio University students and Athens residents. Lexie Thomas, a junior at Ohio University

Stimson Ave., one of the streets hit by the break-ins
Stimson Ave., one of the streets hit by the break-ins

who lives on Stimson Avenue, said she locked her car at night and was surprised by what she found the next morning.

“I came out and everything that was in the compartments of my car were just thrown out on the passengers seat and I was really confused like I didn’t leave it like this and I looked through all of my belongings and the only thing that was gone was spare change.” she said.

With few leads, the Athens Police Department and Athens residents are looking for ways to keep their belongings safe.

Thomas said she is not sure what she can do to prevent something like this from happening again because her car was locked at the time and she continues to keep it locked.

“I really can’t do anything about it, I’m just keeping no wealthy belongings in my car,” she said.

The Athens Police Department is encouraging people to report anything out of the ordinary.

“One of the problems that we run into is that sometimes these things are not reported,” Ralph Harvey, Captain of Police said. “If we don’t know about it, that can’t help us in any way.”

“Be observant of the things around you, where you are,” he added. “When something is out of the ordinary, don’t dismiss that right off the bat.”