Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Your Briefing, the new podcast from the Adams County Sheriff's Office. I'm your host, Sergeant Shea Haney, the Public Information Officer for the Adams County Sheriff's Office. Today is our second episode. This podcast is a short form podcast meant to bring you guys information, educate the community about what's going on in your backyard and try to give you a little bit of insight into our world.
Speaker: Today we're going talk about auto theft. It's a big deal. That's why the the podcast is named Auto Theft 101. Everyone unfortunately has probably had dealt with this in some form or fashion. And we're also going to talk about our tip of the week, which is a sharing location, right? So let's talk about, uh, auto theft. What is it?
Speaker: Auto theft is when your vehicle's stolen without your consent. It's a felony regardless in Colorado that changed very recently. So all of you budding auto theft people, uh, suspects, please don't steal cars cause you're committing a felony regardless. All right. Now,
Speaker: It's also state law for you guys to have insurance. So please, get insurance on your cars, okay? Now, what information do we need to know? We need to know about our cars. We need to know your plate, your VIN, and that's your vehicle identification number. should be on your dashboard.
Speaker: Where was your car stolen at? That matters, right? If you live in Adams County and your car was stolen in Thornton, ah you know, you need to call Thornton because that's where it happened at. So kind of knowing where your car was last seen, where it was stolen from is important.
Speaker: Do you have keys? Did you leave your car running? Did you know that if you leave your car running, That's actually against the law in Colorado, right? So we didn't have a very cold winter, but too often in our and in our state, people will leave their cars running and thieves will come by and steal them. So please don't do that.
Speaker: We also need to know your ah unique identifiers for your car. We talked about in the last episode. Do you have ah bumper stickers are on your cars? Do you have dents on your cars? Is there something unique that stands out for your vehicle? We need to know those things when we come contact you guys. We need to know a value. It's not as important as it used to be because the value used to determine whether we were looking at a misdemeanor or a felony, but know the value of your car. Go to kellybluebook.com. Try to dig into and see what the value of your specific vehicle is and let us know that.
Speaker: And then is it possible that somebody else... has it that should have had your car. Just kind of flushing out some of those details, right? Sometimes we'll we'll respond to calls and and ah a brother or a significant other took the car, somebody didn't know that, they thought it was stolen.
Speaker: Kind of verifying those things is are important to us. Now, where does auto theft happen at? I mean, it can happen anywhere, right? But typically it'll happen in a public place, at your house, in a big parking lot. And and i as I mentioned before, unfortunately, if you're warming up your car and you don't have an automatic start, people are out there looking for these cars when it gets warm. So please don't do that. And we also have our traffic unit sometimes that will go out and try to do some educational enforcement and looking for those specific issues. So please don't be those people.
Speaker: All right, now how can you prevent your car from being stolen? We need to lock our cars. Now, If we lock our cars and somebody's breaking in not to steal it, they might break your window to try to steal stuff, but lock your car doors.
Speaker: Don't keep anything valuable in your car. Don't leave anything in your car. um Well, maybe some trash if you want, but outside of that, don't leave anything in your car, all right? Because too often, people will leave purses, wallets, things of value in their car, and if the car's not getting stolen, these are crimes of opportunity and some people will steal your valuables, so please don't do that.
Speaker: Use garage parking if you can. Not always a possibility, right? We have a lot of folks in Adams County that live in apartments, but if you can, park your car in a garage. Now here's a little bit of a tip. Use Apple AirTags or some other tracking device in your car.
Speaker: If you have a newer car, hopefully there's GPS, hopefully you pay for a system, but if not, use an Apple AirTag. You can activate it, you can hide it in your car, and then we may be able to track your vehicle if if we show up. So something to think about. They're fairly cheap. There's probably other AirTag-type devices out there, so keep that in mind.
Speaker: Know if you have tracking for your car. Do you have navigation? Do you have OnStar? If you do, get that information to us as soon as possible. That'll help us recover your vehicle. You can use the old school clubs, right? we We will hand them out occasionally at events. Other departments will hand them out. Lock your, especially if your car's older, use a club. Lock the lock the wheel, all right? Park in lighted areas. That's just a good safety tip in general. But if you're parking in a public place, parking lighted areas, that'll hopefully keep folks away from from you or your car.
Speaker: And don't let people test drive your car in a private sale. I know that kind of sounds like a unique situation, but a lot of folks sell their cars, right? um By themselves, they don't use dealerships. So please don't let some random person test drive your vehicle.
Speaker: figure out some other way for them to be able to to see the car, to test it out without giving them the keys because sometimes they just don't show back up. Now, what should you do if your car was stolen? So this is the unfortunate circumstance.
Speaker: If you were caught um you know as a victim of auto theft, obviously call 911. If you're in unincorporated Adams County or in like Brighton or North Glen, you can call our non-emergency dispatch number. which is 303-288-1535.
Speaker: Let us know that your car was stolen. The quicker you let us know, the better chances we have of getting your car back, all right? Now, um having all that information that we talked about earlier, that's just gonna help us expedite the report and our our investigation. But you need to remain on scene too often. People will call us and say their car was stolen. We show up. They're not there.
Speaker: Please stay there. Let us show up, get the information from you, and then we'll go from there. All right? Notify your insurance. They're going need your case number. So when an officer shows up, he's going to give you case number. Give that to your insurance.
Speaker: They'll be able to get the report. Because like we talked about, insurance is mandatory in Colorado. You're required to have it. So please get insurance. And then if you find your car, don't approach it. Call 911. A lot of times these cars will get dumped in the same area. Someone will find their car.
Speaker: They'll go try to approach it. Even if someone's in it, please don't be that guy or gal. Give us a call. We will take care of that. that's why That's why we're the police. All right. If you see your car, don't touch the car and until the police show up. There's always a chance that we might be able to get some evidence. So find it give us a call, wait for the officers, then we can go from there, okay? So big takeaway from you from all of these things that I just said, auto theft is down, okay? But it's still a problem. Unfortunately in Colorado,
Speaker: Cars are still getting stolen. It's probably going to continue to be a problem. So take the steps that we talked about. Keep yourself safe. Keep your vehicle safe. And then work with us to combat this problem, right?
Speaker: this These are crimes of opportunity. We want you guys to be able to keep your valuables. We want as few victims as possible, but there are steps you guys can take to make sure that you're keeping yourself ah free from that, okay? Now, let's move on to the tip of the week.
Speaker: The tip of the week is sharing a location. Now it seems a little odd, but in a digital world, that means sharing a location in person. If you're going to go meet someone to sell some items, let someone else know where you're going, right? If you're going to do that, please go to a place like a police department in your area and do it in the parking lot. If you're going to meet strangers, dates, anything like that, please share your location with somebody so that they know where you're going and who you're meeting. Okay.
Speaker: ah Kids. Obviously we ah a lot of us have kids. Make sure your kids are telling you where you're, where they're going. You know, a lot of kids have cell phones. Some don't make sure we're getting the locations for these kids. And then our older population, make sure we know kind of where they're going, right? If you have some of those folks in your life, make sure that you're keeping tabs on them, especially if they have some sort of, um,
Speaker: you know, disease or some sort of illness that makes them prone to being lost, please keep tabs on where they're going. Now, from a technology standpoint, sharing location on your cell phone. If you have a cell phone, share it with your family, especially if you have kids with cell phones and elderly, make sure that you're sharing locations with somebody, right? And that will help us, obviously, if somebody gets lost or if you lose an item, lose a cell phone, make sure you're sharing your locations, okay? And then there's other apps out there. that Find My App on Apple, Life360. Look into these apps if you if you're...
Speaker: have someone and from a vulnerable population in your in your life that needs needs those ah extra things, please check those out. All right. We talked about it earlier, but in Apple AirTags.
Speaker: Put one in your wallet. Unfortunately, I lose my wallet from time to time, so I have one in mine, right? And if obviously you're a victim of a robbery or so theft, put an Apple AirTag in your wallet. We may be able to help you recover it, okay? In your car.
Speaker: Now, ah hide it somewhere. That way if your car gets stolen and you know on navigation, hopefully we can find your car, okay? And then anything that can move, an iPad, a laptop, try to hide these AirTags so that hopefully we can help you recover your property, okay?
Speaker: So that's it. That's all we got for you guys today. Thank you for joining us. If you're watching this on YouTube, please scan the QR code to give us ideas on future episodes. We want to know what you want to know about. So we want to tailor these episodes to the community, to our audience, to figure out what topics in law enforcement do you want to know about. And then if you're listening on Apple or Spotify, please email us at communityconnections at adamsheriffco.gov. Give us show ideas, interact with us. If you want to debate something, you want to talk about something, send us an email.
Speaker: We're going to be releasing shows every other week. And you can find this show on our YouTube page, Apple or Spotify podcast apps. And make sure you like and subscribe so you don't miss an episode. The Sheriff's Office is on all other major social media platforms as well. So please follow us there. We try to share information and we love interacting with our community. So for that, we'll catch you guys next time. Be safe.
