The New Kingston police have confirmed that car stealing is a problem that they have to contend with every day. The figures have increased signi-ficantly compared to last year. In July, 21 cars were reported stolen compared to only nine in July last year.

Tampered with

In a recent letter to the editor, one victim stated, "One Friday evening in March, I parked my 2004 Honda motor car in front of the Courtleigh Auditorium on St Lucia Avenue, while I worked. On returning to the car at app-roximately 11:50 p.m. I found that the ignition had been tampered with. On another occasion, a friend lost his Honda Civic motor car which was found some days later in rural St Elizabeth and no one was arrested".

More recently, a woman had a similar experience. She parked her Nissan Sunny motor car in front of a business place, went in to do her business and returned to find her hand bag on the pave-ment and the car missing. It has still not been recovered.

Four reports

The latest theft took place on Friday, July 11, on St Lucia Avenue. About 6 p.m., a man parked his 2004 Honda Civic and returned two hours later to find only broken glass at the spot.

A report was made to the New Kingston police post. One police officer said four reports of stolen cars in New Kingston were re-ceived in one day.

Frightening experience

In another report to THE STAR, the victim said, "I went to the entertainment spot and parked my car in a lot that wasn't so cro-wded. I was not given a ticket or anything to secure my parking, however a security guard was there. This was about 9:30 p.m. when I returned about 12:50 a.m. there was no car. As a matter of fact, another car was parked in the spot. It was a very frightening experience for me and the security said he didn't see any-thing and that he didn't open the gate for anyone. This seemed strange to me and I questioned him. All he could say to me was that someone could have driven the car out but he did not see." That, too, was reported to the New Kingston, police.

Significant increase

When contacted, DSP McArthur Sutherland of the Half-Way Tree CIB, said that "We have significant increase in recent times and cur-rently we are working to have a reduction in car stealing. I would advise persons to, however, take precautionary measures with their vehicles. Another measure we are going to employ is covert policing, this means we will have police in plain clothes patrolling the area and finally there will be a stronger police presence in the New Kingston area which will include stop and search procedures and persons will have to produce documents."