The Sedona Police Department is teaming up with the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office to put an end to an increase of vehicle burglaries throughout Oak Creek Canyon.
The area along the canyon was hard hit during June, mostly from Midgely Bridge to Slide Rock State Park, with Coconino County recording 14 car burglaries in one weekend.
That’s three times the amount they’ve ever seen, according to Coconino County Deputy Sheriff Jon Paxton.
By Alison Ecklund
Larson Newspapers
The Sedona Police Department is teaming up with the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office to put an end to an increase of vehicle burglaries throughout Oak Creek Canyon.
The area along the canyon was hard hit during June, mostly from Midgely Bridge to Slide Rock State Park, with Coconino County recording 14 car burglaries in one weekend.
That’s three times the amount they’ve ever seen, according to Coconino County Deputy Sheriff Jon Paxton.
Within Sedona’s city limits, SPD recorded 21 auto burglaries since January — 10 in June, up from three in May, four in April and two in March, SPD Cmdr. Ron Wheeler said.
According to both agencies, the mode of entry in the most recent string of car burglaries is the same, which leads them to assume it is one group acting alone.
The thieves are breaking car windows only if they see objects in plain view and are reaching through the broken window to retrieve the loot. They are not opening doors, so no fingerprints have been collected.
“If they see something, they break in,” Paxton said, suggesting anyone parking at a trailhead lock valuables out of sight in the trunk.
Wheeler agreed.
“These are crimes of opportunity,” he said. “They see stuff and take it.”
In total, Coconino County has seen around 30 break-ins in the canyon this year, amounting to about $2,000 of goods taken, Paxton said, mostly from purses.
Purses make up 90 percent of what the thieves take from vehicles, he said, along with backpacks and tote bags.
“Don’t leave anything in plain sight,” Paxton said. “These guys are doing — whatever they see — they smash, grab and go.”
On June 14, surveillance cameras at Beall’s Outlet in Bashas’ plaza caught a woman using a credit card that had been stolen from a vehicle earlier that day. The victim’s car was broken into between 4 and 6 p.m. near Slide Rock State Park.
Although the woman is caught on camera using the card, she is yet to be caught by local police.
When the victim called the credit card company to cancel the card, the company told her the card had already been used in Sedona; twice at the Beall’s Outlet for $131.12 and $70.21, Walgreens for $67.74 and Bashas’ for $5.17.
Someone also attempted to use the stolen card at the West Sedona McDonald’s but the amount wasn’t available, according to police reports.
The victim did find some of the stolen items in the Walgreens rest room later that night, but nothing of value, the reports stated.
In the case of stolen credit cards, everyone loses, according to Wheeler. The original victims are the No. 1 victims; the stores where the stolen card is used are also victimized if the credit card company won’t pay back the entire amount.
Although neither agency reported any vehicle burglaries over the Fourth of July weekend, both will continue investigating the slew of crimes.
Wheeler thinks Fourth of July weekend went without incident because there were so many people around the trailheads all day, he said, never giving criminals a chance to strike.
“These are not going away,” Wheeler said. “We want people to be careful.”
