District 2, which includes the University campus and surrounding areas, had more vehicle burglaries in the past week than all the other districts in Baton Rouge, according to
Baton Rouge Police Department crime maps.
While the maps for districts 1, 3 and 4 each indicated between 10 and 13 vehicle burglary locations over the past week, the map for district 2 showed 22 locations, including Stanford Avenue, Brightside Drive, Highland Road, Boyd Drive and the Tigerland area.
The maps only indicate crime locations and not the number of vehicles burglarized, but multiple burglaries often occur at the same locations, according to Cpl. L’Jean McKneely, BRPD spokesman.
“Burglars are likely to hit more than one car in the same day,” McKneely said. “You can have 10 burglaries in one night.”
McKneely said the number of vehicle burglaries for District 2 is probably higher because there is more opportunity outside of a college campus.
“With all the apartments, there are more cars,” he said. “It’s easier to burglarize cars when there are so many in that area.”
McKneely said there is little traffic passing through the area late at night and multiple businesses near campus.
Sgt. Blake Tabor, LSUPD spokesman, said there haven’t been any trends in vehicle burglaries so far this year, and the numbers are typically low.
“We’re going to be victims of vehicle burglaries because of the sheer amount of vehicles on campus,” Tabor said.
Tabor said Easy Streets helps protect vehicles in the center of campus, but commuter parking lots on the outskirts of campus have been affected in the past.
McKneely said precautions can be taken to decrease the chances of having a vehicle burglarized, including keeping valuable objects like MP3 players, laptops, phones and purses out of sight or out of the car entirely.
“Nine times out of 10, they’re not going to break into your car if they don’t see anything valuable in there,” he said.
McKneely said people should also be sure to lock their doors, park in well-lit areas and use a car alarm system.
“They don’t want to draw attention to themselves, and an alarm will scare them away,” he said. “Most of the time, people flee.”
 
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Contact Sarah Eddington at [email protected]