Broken Arrow Neighborhood Sees String Of Car Burglaries

Broken Arrow Police are seeing a spike in car break-ins in recent weeks, including several near the Battle Creek Golf Course. Officers said this crime is very easy to prevent because most of the car break-ins happen because people leave valuables in their cars and leave the doors unlocked.

“That was actually in a person's driveway and we had I think four reports in that neighborhood that night, overnight hours, of that person breaking into vehicles," said Broken Arrow Officer Chris Walker.

Officer Walker said detectives are looking for a man who is seen in surveillance video breaking into a car in the Battle Creek area. “Typically this time of year car burglaries are ramping up. A lot of them are due to people leaving their cars unlocked, but sometimes force is also used to gain entry," said Officer Walker.

He said there were two more car burglaries in the last 24 hours in a different part of town and in those, three guns were stolen.

Police said this crime trend is a huge issue. Officers said in 2019, 40% of all guns reported stolen in BA, were taken out of cars. “That’s huge. If we can prevent 40 percent of guns from getting in the hands of a bad person with bad intent we need to do that," said Officer Walker. He said nobody wants to see guns end up in the wrong hands and be used to commit crimes. “They’re taking many times out of the hands of a bad actor and that’s where we are seeing them a lot. We do see some of them pop up at pawn shops, but let's keep them from being stolen in the first place. Let’s keep that from happening," said Officer Walker.

He said to call the police if your car is broken into, even if there isn't much taken. He said the reports help officers track crime trends in different areas of town.