Tulsans Reminded To Lock Up Vehicles

By Lori Fullbright, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Car hopping is a new crime craze in Tulsa and the victims who have been hit are sick of it.  Tulsa Police say car hopping usually takes place after a party.  People choose a neighborhood and split up and they try to find as many unlocked cars as possible.

Wynne Marsh was awakened on Thursday at four in the morning with police knocking on her door, telling her they'd just arrested three men for stealing items from cars and their car was one of them.

"They had caught the suspect in the act and were driving them around, identifying which houses they'd gotten into," said Wynne Marsh.

Tulsa Police say three men:  Weston Melancon, James Nance and Christopher Bushyhead, were caught with many stolen items in their car, including the Marsh's satellite radio.

They say they admitted to carhopping and had tried about 100 car doors and about 15 were unlocked and they found items worth taking in 10 of them.

Wynne and her husband got a letter from the Tulsa County District Attorney's Office saying the men would face felony burglary from vehicle.

"They've come into my space, took something that's mine and you come outside and your car is unlocked, you might not even know it's been broken into. The radio, we don't use it every day, so it might've taken awhile to realize it was missing and think it was misplaced," said Wynne Marsh.

The Marshes notified their neighborhood association, which let all the neighbors know about car hopping because dozens of vehicles have been hit and they want to prevent others from being victimized.

Rule number one for prevention is don't leave your car unlocked and rule number two is don't leave anything valuable, GPS, iPod or laptop inside because they will be taken.

Wynne and her husband have learned their lesson and are trying to focus on the bright side of all this.

"The good news is they're not doing vandalism.  They're just seeing what they can get from unlocked cars," said Wynne Marsh.

Because these men told the officer they were car hopping, that makes it a set plan to get into the cars, so they also now face a conspiracy charge.  They told officers they were even selective about the neighborhoods they hit.  Not too rich.  None that were gated.  Just nice neighborhoods where people parked outside.