Austin Police Department reports that garage burglaries are on the rise.

Since March, police say they have responded to 44 burglaries from garages being left open.

Most of the burglaries have happened in the South Austin area during the day.

“The trend that we’re seeing is there’s folks driving through the neighborhood,” said Axel Goldman with the Austin Police Department. “They basically get to window shop in your garage when the garage door’s wide open. They’ll make a pass or two just kind of taking inventory. Then they’ll pull up within seconds and they’re in your garage taking whatever they want, running back dumping it in the vehicle and taking off.”

So what’s the key problem?

PEOPLE LEAVING THEIR GARAGE DOORS OPEN!

There’s a simple solution:

CLOSE YOUR GARAGE DOOR!

I see this in my own neighborhood and have even spoken with my neighbors about it. Yet some still leave their garage doors open at all times of the day and night.

As APD states, they drive by, maybe a couple times, then pull up, grab what they want, then quickly bail out. You’ll probably never know until you go looking for something in the garage and you can’t find it. It’ll be a hard crime to stop as well, at least once it’s in progress. So why not stop it before it starts BY KEEPING YOUR GARAGE DOOR CLOSED!

The article has other good and useful suggestions, so do give them a read and heed.