This common sense advice from Linton Police Chief Troy Jerrell was issued since police have worked a number of burglary and theft incidents this spring involving unlocked vehicles.
"Whether you are parking your car overnight, making a quick trip into a store, or even just running into a gas station, lock your car and don't ever leave the keys in the ignition," said Jerrell.
This past weekend, officers worked two incidents that might have been prevented if keys had been removed from the ignition and the vehicles locked.
Early last Friday, a Linton resident reported several items had been stolen from her Chevy Blazer that had been parked overnight in a parking lot at Glenburn.
Clothes left inside the vehicle had been ruffled up and a cell phone was missing. Two containers of prescription medication, Loritab and Ibuprofen, were missing as well. The thief also took a set of house keys for a residence.
At the time of the theft, the keys had been left hanging in the ignition.
On Sunday afternoon, a Bloomfield resident who had parked his Chevy pickup truck in the 100 block of East Vincennes Street reported it as stolen around 1:30 p.m.
A number of items were in the truck and the tool box on the back. A Remington rifle was under the back seat of the extended cab and there was ammunition on the seat.
At the time of the theft, the keys had been left hanging in the ignition.
The truck was found early Monday morning in a ditch.
Jerrell says with warmer weather, more people are out walking around so we really need to be paying attention.
"Every spring and summer, we get hit with a string of burglaries involving things inside cars and the cars too. Typically what they'll do is just walk down a row of vehicles and flip the door handles to see if any of them will open. If they do, they'll hop in and take cell phones, CDs, anything they can grab hold of and sometimes they take the vehicle as well," said Jerrell.
There have been cases involving a civil suit, a domestic dispute or a divorce when a person has the keys and takes the vehicle or items inside without permission but Jerrell says vehicles are not usually stolen without keys.
"Rarely is there a case where a window is broken into or there has been a forced entry gained into the vehicle. I can only remember one time, maybe two, this has happened the whole time I've worked here," said Jerrell.
Newer model cars are much harder to break into and to steal, according to Jerrell.
"It takes more knowledge to break into these newer model cars. It's rare when one is broken into, hot-wired and driven away," said Jerrell.
To guard against being a victim of a theft of a vehicle or its contents, Jerrell says the most important deterrent is to always take the keys and lock the car.