SPD Offers East Sacramento Holiday Advice

A few items for SPD Central Command:

Catalytic Converter Thefts – we have seen a significant trend in Catalytic converter thefts in the City over the past 6 weeks.  Catalytic converters are a part of the exhaust system in all newer model vehicles.  These converters contain semi precious metals and are quite valuable when sold to scrap metal dealers.  The two most prominent vehicles that are being hit are Toyota Tacoma Pickup trucks, and Toyota four runners.  Because these vehicles are lifted a bit, it is very easy for a thief to quickly slide under the vehicle and cut the catalytic converters away from the exhaust pipe.  If you have a Toyota I would recommend that you garage it if possible, or park it as close to the house as possible.  The thefts are primarily occurring during the early morning hours.

We also continue to see an increase in Bike thefts, primarily in the downtown/midtown/North Oak Park areas.  Please do not leave your bike outside if possible, and invest in a very good (thick) lock.

Burglaries – with the holidays approaching we are entering a season when we traditionally see an uptick in home and auto burglaries.  A couple of things to think about:  Consider not placing wrapped gifts in locations where they can be seen through a window.  Often times burglars will see a tree with lots of presents under it and this is a very enticing target.  On the same note, when shopping, don’t leave items in your vehicle where they can be seen through the car window.  Try and put them in the trunk, or cover them if you can.

Consider joining our Reverse 911 data base. We use reverse 911 when we need to get critical information to the community.  This tool allows us to call all phone numbers in an area when there is a specific critical incident.  For instance, this summer there was a chemical fire in the Power Inn area.  There was a potentially toxic cloud that was traveling East bound from the fire location.  We used Reverse 911 to notify all of the homes/businesses in the path of the cloud to shut their windows and doors and to shelter in place.  Many people no longer have home phones and use their cell numbers as their primary numbers.  Please strongly consider registering your cell number with us and pass this information on to your neighbors.

If you are interested in voluntarily registering your wireless device (s) with us, digital home number or VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol number), log on to www.sacpd.org and click on the  link