Police: Car stolen with child inside highlights growing trend that arrives with colder weather

DAYTON — Monday night’s case of a car stolen while the driver’s 11-year-old son still inside the vehicle highlights a growing trend Dayton police see this time of the year.

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Along with the colder temperatures comes an increase of cars stolen while they were running, Dayton police Sgt. Gordon Cairns told News Center 7′s Mike Campbell Wednesday. In most cases Cairns said keys are left in the ignition or key fabs of cars with push button ignitions are kept inside the vehicle.

“We do see this time of year these instances do increase,” Cairns said. “Most of the GTAs were finding in the city are involving have the keys or key fab, people leaving the keys in the car, which we strongly recommend don’t do, and then leaving their cars running.”

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What could seem like a quick and easy trip to the gas station for a cup of coffee, or running the car to heat it up in the morning, both exhibit prime examples in cold-weather months where car thieves like to strike, Cairns said.

“They go back in the house while the car warms up, defrost the windows, maybe go to the gas station, don’t want to turn the car off because it is cold and they run in real quick.”

“It only takes just a few seconds for someone to jump in that car and be gone,” he said.

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And in most cases, Cairns said its an entirely preventable crime. All the driver needs to do is not leave the car running and not leave the keys in the car.

Monday night, a woman picking up a DoorDash order at a convenience store on Watervliet Avenue returned to her car only to find it gone. Still in the car were all her belongings and her 11-year-old son.

Minutes after the car was stolen, police located the boy on Shroyer Road after the car thief dropped him off in front of Carmel’s Bar and Grill. He was found uninjured, but the vehicle and suspect have still not been found.

Cairns said as the popularity of personal delivery services and apps continues it has also brought with it an increase in car thefts by criminals looking for any opportunity to strike.

“With the large influx of delivery services like DoorDash, Uber Eats, other independent package delivery services, we’re starting to see people will come up to make a delivery and they think ‘hey its just a neighborhood I’m just gonna leave my car running, I’ll go up to the house real quick and make this delivery.’”

“Again it only takes a moment for someone to be in that neighborhood, see that car running, they can jump in it and they’re gone,” Cairns said.

Cairns said police have also seen instances where delivery drivers are followed and their car gets stolen at the first opportunity or mistake the driver makes. He added its similar to how some porch thieves operate, where they follow drivers and grab packages as they are delivered.

While a simple solution to this problem could be for delivery drivers to just carry two sets of keys, one in the car to keep it running and the other to lock and unlock as they make deliveries, Cairns says that too is a bad idea.

“What can happen is they’ll just smash your window. If the door’s locked but the car’s running, especially if they see a set of keys hanging in that car, it takes just a second to break that window,” he said.

And the same advice goes for drivers who have a car with a push button start. Depending on the make and model, drivers can’t rely that the car will just stop when the car is taken out of range of the key fab, Cairns said. In those instances the car can still be driven miles away but the thief just wouldn’t be able to restart the car after stopping it and turning off the ignition.

In all cases, Cairns said drivers just need to protect themselves from becoming victims by turning their cars off, locking the doors, and taking the keys with them.

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