By Pamela Singleton, Sonitrol Pacific Director of Communications
Posted February 12, 2009

I just received another excellent crime alert from the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department with more fabulous crime prevention tips … and I’ll get to those in a moment, but what really caught my eye was the statement about Washington State law “prohibiting leaving your vehicle running and unattended”, i.e. don’t turn on the engine to defrost the car while you pop back in the kitchen for another cup of coffee.

I can’t remember the last time I actually scrapped the frost off my windows. Thanks for the heads-up Thurston County Sheriff Dan Kimball.

And now for details on the crime alert:

“During the morning hours today, there were four vehicles stolen in Thurston County, including in the City of Olympia. The significance of this is that all of these vehicles were left to ‘warm up’ and ‘defrost’ in the owner’s driveway or in front of their house. There were two similar events on February 11th. Several of the vehicles have been recovered, but in one instance, the suspects returned to the victim’s residence in an apparent attempt to commit a burglary.”

Crime prevention tips:
1) You should not leave your vehicle running and unattended, even for a moment
2) If you must leave your vehicle, ensure that it is locked.