How to prevent parking lot theft this holiday season
With the holiday season now in full gear, expect to see shoppers out and about at local malls and stores. It also means the potential for Grinches out there ruining Christmas by stealing gifts.
‘Tis the season for holiday shopping and that means full parking lots and malls full of people searching for gifts.
“The stores are starting to be really crowded. I went shopping yesterday and you couldn’t even get down some of the aisles,” Susannah Bria of Cathedral City, said.
However- there’s a chance the Grinch might steal Christmas, especially when your car becomes a target with visible gifts, something one shopper says she tries to avoid.
“That’s a big mistake beause people are trolling the parking lots, they’re looking for things,” Cindy Wallway of Thousand Palm, said.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1071523005786963970″,”author_name”:”Jeremy Chen”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;With the holiday season underway, there’s the potential for Grinches out there trying to ruin your Christmas by stealing gifts. Coming up tonight on &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KESQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@KESQ&#lt;/a&#gt;, I’ll show how you can prevent parking lot thefts. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/nzBdsMvUkn”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/nzBdsMvUkn&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Jeremy Chen (@JeremyChenKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1071523005786963970?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;December 8, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1 in 10 property thefts happen in parking lots. Some shoppers say they’re taking their own precautions.
“It’s much easier to keep on eye on your stuff, if you’ve got somebody else with you helping you out and people are less likely to try to maybe break into your car or rob you if you got somebody else with you,” Justin Boucher of Cathedral City, said.
According to Consumer Reports, one of the best ways to prevent parking lot thefts, is to hide your valuable gifts, by putting them in places like the back of your trunk.
“We usually just hide it under the seat or in the trunk or wherever so it’s not visible for people to look in your car and see,” Joseph Meyer of Cathedral City, said.
Other tips include parking closer to the store, shopping during the daytime and most importantly…..
“Always make sure and lock your car. You’re juggling a lot of things and you may forget to lock your car. Just things like that and make sure you got your valuables in,” Boucher said.
All ways to thwart any potential Grinches out there.
Download the KESQ & CBS Local 2 app on iTunes or Google Play for up-to-the-minute breaking news alerts & more
More: I-Team and Stands for You investigations
Find us on Facebook: KESQ News Channel 3 & CBS Local 2
Follow us on Twitter for breaking news updates: @KESQ & @Local2
We’re on Instagram! @KESQ_News_Channel_3 & @CBSLocal2
Noticias en español: Telemundo 15
