GPS takes thieves in new direction

The theft of car satellite navigation systems has emerged as the Australian state of Victoria's biggest crime trend in the past financial year.

Crime figures for the 2007-08 financial year show that in the category of theft from motor vehicles, 6787 global position systems were stolen.

In 2006-07, 1632 were stolen.

The figures mean that an average of 19 GPS systems were stolen in the state every day, accounting for about 13 percent of all thefts from motor vehicles reported to police.

About 47,000 cars were broken into during the year, at a cost of more than A$31 million to the community.

A Victoria Police spokesman described theft from vehicles as "purely an opportunistic offence".

"If people didn't leave valuables in their cars it would reduce the opportunities for thieves to steal," he said.

"We've been through it with mobile phones and we've been through it with laptop computers, and to some degree the public has started to heed the warnings about that.

"But something has been lost in the translation because they still leave their satellite navigation systems on full display on the windscreen or dashboard."

He said many motorists who did not leave GPS systems on display stored them in the car's glove box, which was the first place thieves looked if they saw the cradles the devices sat in, or the marks the cradle suction cups left on windscreens.

In most of these cases it would take "less than 30 seconds to break in, steal the device and leave", he said.

Almost half the cars that had been broken into had their windows smashed.

In other crime trends, the spokesman said homicides and crimes against people had dropped but robberies had increased.

The state's crime statistics will be released today. 

- © Fairfax NZ News