Thieves target holiday shoppers, break into cars

HENRY COUNTY, Ga. - Henry County Police are warning holiday shoppers to not leave valuables in their car or even hidden in the trunk. A group of thieves knows shoppers have items in there and found a way to get into a car even the driver knowing it. And police officers are not immune to it either.

Police said there have been more than 20 car break-ins. A number of them were committed here at Henry Town Center and they said criminals are getting more sophisticated.

It doesn’t matter where a car is parked and the thieves certainly don’t care. Surveillance video captured one of the many break-ins happening in Henry County this season. The car is parked outside of Logan’s. A white car pulls up, and a man gets out. In the video, he can be seen fiddling with the door handle, getting inside the car, and popping the trunk. In less than a minute, he is in and out.

Police said the victims won’t know because they use the keyless entry systems to open and close the car doors. They likely won’t know until they started to discover things missing inside the car.

Henry County Police Captain Joey Smith said even one of their own officers was hit. He was eating dinner with his family and parked his vehicle at a location where he could watch it, but was hit anyway.

So what can you do? Police said that at this point you don’t have many options. The best thing to do is try not to keep things in your car that can’t be replaced.

Police have identified two vehicles, and they’re hoping that someone will recognize them. Police said these guys are very professional and savvy.

Police believe that the criminals could be switching out cars. And they also believe that they’re hitting shopping centers in multiple jurisdictions.