Holiday Shopping Safety Tips

Rockford, Illinois - The holiday season is upon us and everyone is racing to the stores to get their shopping done. But it`s also a time many robbers can take advantage of your stressful shopping experience. Savvy shoppers know what to do to keep themselves safe from thieves. Holiday shopper John Guevara said, "I lock my car doors. I try to put my packages in my trunk; try not to keep packages out of the seats or anything like that and tend to park relatively well-lit areas because if you don`t you have more opportunities for break-ins." But that`s not true for everyone. The Rockford Police Department says already this year nearly 2,500 people have had their vehicle broken into and that number is expected to increase during the holiday shopping season. Sergeant John Eau Claire of the Detective Bureau Burglary Unit said "Obviously this time of year, because of the increased shopping on the farther east areas, those parking lots tend to offer a target rich environment." Eau Claire said you`re less likely to be a victim if you lock your doors and put your personal belongings away in a truck or cargo storage area out of sight. "The subjects that do this will just wander through the parking lots and look for a few specific things," said Eau Claire. "They`ll look in a vehicle and they`ll see something they want next thing they`ll do is check to see if the vehicle is locked." It sounds simple enough to keep your personal belongings out of sight, but just walking down one isle of parked cars at the CherryVale Mall parking lot, one could see six vehicles with personal belongings and purchases out in the open for anyone to see. Some vehicles had their back seats filled with bags from different department stores. "If it`s to the point where you`ve purchased enough things that you can`t put them in [a trunk or cargo space] if at all possible, plan shopping route to take these items home," said Eau Claire. "I can`t stress enough, securing personal property makes you [less likely to be] a possible target." Eau Claire said if you need to put your personal items, like a purse or briefcase, in your vehicle make sure you do so at home not in the parking lot of a shopping center where thieves may be watching you put away your things.