JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — People living in a Southside apartment complex are dealing with the headache of cleaning up and fixing their car windows after a string of vehicle break-ins this week.
More than a dozen cars were broken into at the Citigate Apartments off Gate Parkway. Cars were also hit at another complex next door.
JSO has not released any suspect information, but according to their crime mapping data, this is one of 70 reports of car break-ins within the last week.
Christian Hancock, the Public Information Officer for JSO, said overall, vehicle break-ins are down by about 7% compared to this time last year; however, they usually see an uptick over the summer months.
"We're talking about the crime, in general, burglaries to autos pick up different times of the year. Summer months? Yes, they typically do. Why is that? Because children get out of school, they've had a little more time on their hands seemingly," Hancock explained.
People living in the Citigate Apartments told First Coast News they generally feel safe there and they have not experienced something like this before. They did complain about the gate staying open overnight. First Coast News spoke with employees at Citigate on Thursday, and asked whether the gate is broken. Employees directed our questions to upper management. No one answered our request.
Hancock said these large apartment complexes can be easy targets for thieves.
“There's a lot of opportunity in an apartment complex, right? If you walk into a subdivision with homes, your possible victims are 100-150 feet from each other. In an apartment complex, they're parked right next to each other. So does that draw the average suspect looking to break into cars? Absolutely," Hancock said.
While JSO continues to investigate this latest round of vehicle break-ins, they encourage everyone to lock their car doors and take everything out of their cars, even if it is not valuable.
“Take the things out that are important, that look important that someone would think is valuable. They're not going to break a window just for the sake of breaking a window, they're going to see something in there that prompts that destruction of your vehicle," Hancock said.