‘It’s a struggle’: Quincy Police Department addressing recent spate of car burglaries, vehicle thefts

QUINCY — A recent report compiled by the Quincy Police Department showed the number of motor vehicle thefts had risen from 42 in 2022 to 93 in 2023. However, Chief Adam Yates said the creation of a special investigations unit in April 2024 seemed to have made a dent in that type of activity this year.

Until this week.

A press release from QPD on Tuesday noted that officers had responded to approximately 15 burglary to motor vehicle reports and four stolen vehicle reports during the overnight hours of Monday into Tuesday. Deputy Chief Mike Tyler said Wednesday that five more burglary to motor vehicle reports and another stolen vehicle report were made on Tuesday.

Then, on Thursday morning, a Pittsfield man allegedly jumped into a FedEx truck and took off before being apprehended in Taylor, Mo.

Thursday’s incident happened at 10th and Jersey, but Tyler said most of the crimes have occurred in the southeast quadrant (east of 30^th Street) of Quincy. In most cases, the vehicles were left unlocked. The keys were left inside the vehicles which were stolen.

Tyler made similar pleas to Quincy citizens in February 2023 and April 2023.

“What has happened in the fairly recent past, within the last year or so, is (thieves have) been stealing a car because it’s unlocked and keys are in it,” he said. “Then they drive it to another neighborhood across town, ditch that car and then steal what they want. If they find another car that has its keys in it, they’ll steal that car and go elsewhere.”

Tyler believes the suspects are teenagers or people in their early 20s. In four out of the five stolen vehicle cases this week, the car already has been found.

“They probably don’t have a vehicle their own, so they’re stealing a vehicle to get around, to go to a different area,” he said. “They see that (something they want is) in there, and they steal the car. They get it out of the way of the property owner who might be alerted, and then they can go through and rummage through the car and see what they want while they’re driving away with it.

“These (thefts) are happening in the overnight hours, so it’s either the next day or later that morning when the owner gets outside to see the car has been stolen. But by the time the car gets reported as stolen, (the thieves) ditch it before it gets reported so they’re not actually in the car when it’s recovered.”

The special investigations unit made arrests in the spring that appeared to have shut down one group of thieves. However, Tyler says QPD now appears to be dealing with a different group, and conducting the investigations aren’t easy.

“Just because you (arrest) a couple of people doesn’t mean you’re not getting the rest,” Tyler said. “There’s a lot of things going around where you have different groups of people that are doing it. There is not much evidence left. We get (doorbell) videos all the time from people who catch (the thieves) on security cameras, but when people have hoods on and a mask, it’s hard to track down.”

Tyler says people should feel safe in their neighborhoods, but he can’t emphasize enough the importance of locking car doors parked outside. He said most of the calls for burglaries to vehicles and thefts of vehicles involve unlocked vehicles. People often leave their key fob in the vehicle when they get home for the evening.

“When you scroll the calls for (police) service, you see it all the time — ‘I left my keys in a car,’” Tyler said. “Now the dispatchers know to ask (callers) if they have their keys so it’s on the on the call log. People feel that, hey, I don’t have to lock my cars around here. Being in law enforcement, I’ve always said that’s not a good habit.”

The Flock license plate readers that the Quincy Police Department had installed throughout the city typically can’t help much because the people stealing the cars aren’t hanging on to them long enough before information is put in the Flock database.

“The owner has to make the stolen vehicle report to the police, and then dispatch has to enter it,” Tyler said. “Once the information is entered and the license plate (of a stolen car) would hit a camera, it would send an alert. But if the car is stolen overnight, and the owner realizes the next morning the car is stolen, these (thieves) are driving from one neighborhood to another to do more burglaries and ditching the car.

“It’s a struggle. They’re very hard to capture and evidence is difficult to collect.”

Tyler said the thieves typically are looking for valuables they can easily carry away.

“They’re not going to steal your golf clubs,” he said. “But they’re taking wallets, money, phone chargers and guns that people leave unsecured. Take all of your valuables out of your car. There’s no reason to leave them in there. Put them in the house. Take them with you. Turn on the lights around your house. A fully lit house at night makes it less likely for a crime to be committed.”

Tyler suggested that people who have home security systems volunteer to register them with the Quincy Police Department. 

“Let’s say a crime occurs. Our investigators can go into that database and say, ‘So and so has a camera here. I’m going knock on their door and see if they captured anything,’” Tyler said. “We’re not saying, ‘Hey, we want access to your cameras.’ It’s saying, ‘Can you let us know that you have cameras so we can call you?’ It’s a lot easier when we have a road map for who has cameras in neighborhoods.”

Burglary of a motor vehicle is a Class 3 felony in Illinois, carrying a possible prison sentence of two to five years. Possession of a stolen motor vehicle is a Class 2 felony in Illinois, carrying a possible prison sentence of three to seven years.

Those crimes would be less frequent if people simply locked their vehicles.

“People just need to start getting in the habit of checking (to lock their cars) before going to bed,” Tyler said.