A reminder from the Sheriff’s Office: Lock your vehicle doors and remove valuable items from inside

Just a reminder to everyone they should be locking car doors and removing valuables from inside, even when the car is parked at your home.

Six Upper Keys residents found out the hard way this weekend that leaving your car unlocked with valuables inside can be costly. Deputies responded to homes on Plantation Road and Buttonwood Avenue in Key Largo; Harbor Lane in Plantation Key and Captain’s Court and Sebring Drive in Tavernier to reports of vehicle burglaries over the weekend. A number of valuable items were taken from the unlocked cars, including a wallet, a purse, a gun and a laptop computer.

The victim on Buttonwood Drive confronted possible suspects who were in a vehicle attempting to leave the area; as the suspects drove away, they hit the victim’s leg with their car. The victim was fortunately not seriously injured.

The Sheriff’s Office recommends you always lock car doors when parking anywhere and remove valuable items from inside like wallets, purses, weapons and electronics. If you do see someone you believe to be a suspect, do not directly confront the person; instead, attempt to get a tag number and as much of a detailed description as possible of the vehicle and the suspect. Confronting the suspect can be dangerous, particularly if the suspect is armed and feels threatened.

Jet ski theft prevented

The owner of trailer loaded with two personal watercraft prevented the theft of his property Sunday night by the simple application of a chain.

On Sunday at 10:30 p.m. an alert neighbor on Pirate Drive in Key Largo called to report someone was trying to steal  his neighbor’s personal watercraft. When Deputy Cody Kerns arrived, the truck attempting the theft had fled the scene. The neighbor said he heard a vehicle outside and saw a newer model white Dodge Ram truck hooked up to his neighbor’s trailer trying to pull it out of the yard. The neighbor yelled at the driver; he saw two men get out and unhook the trailer from the truck, then speed off in the truck.

Deputy Kerns said a chain attached to the trailer and hooked up to a chain link fence had prevented the theft from taking place.

“Preventing crime can be just this simple,” said Sheriff Rick Ramsay. “In this case, all it took was a simple chain making it more difficult for a criminal to succeed in his efforts. Many times, all it takes is locking a door, or turning outside lights on. And kudos to the neighbor who took the time to check outside when he heard something he thought wasn’t right,” said the Sheriff.

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