LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – The Highlands neighborhood is becoming home to a bad habit. Crime statistics released on Tuesday show a disturbing trend: more than a third of burglars are breaking into buildings and vehicles that were left unlocked.
According to District 8 Councilman Brandon Coan, out of the 122 burglaries between July and September 2018, 47 were made easy targets for thieves: that's nearly 40 percent.
“I'm surprised that people aren't locking their cars. I mean there's just a lot of theft that happens unfortunately every day,” Doug Jefferson, who has lived in the Highlands for two years, said.
Jefferson told WHAS11 News that he always keeps his doors locked and it’s a routine he thinks everyone should get on board with.
“This part of town there's a lot of activity, a lot of people walking by, there's just a lot of activity, and for that reason, I feel like you need to lock your car,” Jefferson said.
“I certainly have forgotten to lock my car doors in my life, but I really make it a point to, with how much I think about this stuff, to take my briefcase out of my car, not to leave valuables in plain sight and to lock it every time,” Councilman Brandon Coan said.
Councilman Coan has been urging the community to #KeepLouisvilleLocked since January. He said that despite his efforts in the last nine months, there are still too many people not locking their doors.
“We're not really making much progress, but we're not seeing the problem getting increasingly worse either,” he explained. “It's sort of a behavior that is consistent that we need to try to start to fix.”
“It's such an easy step to take to prevent theft,” Jefferson added.
“To think that we could reduce our crime 35 percent, more than a third, just by taking some simple actions ourselves,” Councilman Coan said. “It’s probably the safest neighborhood in the entire city of Louisville and we want to keep it that way, but we need people's help.”