NINETY people have been charged with stealing cars or items from cars in the Casey area after an extensive police investigation.
Police said thieves often stole cars and other items so they could sell them for money to buy drugs to support their habit
At other times vehicles were stolen for “fun”.
Casey CIU dedicated taskforce TOMCAT (Theft of Motor Car Action Team) is a team of four detectives who have have been working with Casey uniform members to investigate organised vehicles thefts and thefts from vehicles within the Casey area in recent months.
One of the most recent arrests was on 14 March when Casey CIU TOMCAT executed a search warrant at a residential address in Manhattan Mews, Narre Warren.
Stolen vehicles and suspected stolen property was seized and a 22-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman were charged with theft and handling stolen goods.
A 23-year-old man, also from Narre Warren, assisted police with their inquiries.
They will appear at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 8 July.
Sergeant Stuart Freeman said police had tried hard to tackle the problem over the past six months which had resulted in a significant drop in the numbers of stolen cars and thefts from cars.
In December, there were 56 cars stolen and 189 cases of theft from cars, but those number has dropped each month.
In February, 39 cars were stolen from the area and there were 94 cases of theft from cars.
Sgt Freeman said the decrease in the crime was partially due to two operations, Redhill and Locomotion, which targets various offences in specific locations as well as other proactive and reactive strategies.
He said police recognised stolen cars were a huge problem in the area, and said many of the people who steal from cars were looking to exchange them for drugs or sell the items for drug money.
He said many of the cars were stolen “just for fun” and burnt out in an attempt to destroy evidence.
“They don’t realise that we have a number of different procedure regardless of whether the car is burnt out to identify (the offenders),” Sgt Freeman said.
“Thefts happen 24 hours a day.
“There tends to be more during the night when offenders use the cover of darkness while people are asleep.
“And it happens during the day when offenders assume certain cars are left at places for extended period of time.
“But we also have strategies in place to tackle that. We have proactive and responsive strategies.
“That is why we arrested and brought before the court 90 people in a few months, which is significant. We are very happy with the result.”
Sgt Freeman said that Casey residents should also take proper steps to ensure their cars were not stolen or broken into.
“(Police) can only do so much. It’s up to the public to ensure they aren’t leaving themselves vulnerable by leaving valuables in their car such as GPS’s, handbags and you’d be surprised how many people often leave a spare set of keys in the car,” Sgt Freeman said.
“A lot of the times cars are broken into for small change then they see the keys and end up taking the car.”
Anyone that has any information on stolen cars or thefts from cars is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
