The following is a statement released by the Barnegat Chief of Police:

We wanted to take a few minutes this morning to talk about a recent burglary that occurred while the home was occupied, why it happened, and what you need to be aware of so you can avoid becoming a victim.

All of Ocean County has been dealing with car theft rings that come here to steal cars (often high-end cars). Sometimes they steal the cars to commit crimes with them, sometimes they steal them so they can be sold.

There are a lot of factors that have led to this becoming a common occurrence and the brazen nature of today’s offenders. Academics and politicians will be arguing about the “root cause” for years. Most people with common sense can see the changes made to the criminal justice system over recent years and figure it out for themselves. I’ll save my thoughts on that for another time.

Car Theft 101:
So how does this typically happen? Would-be offenders from outside of our community (usually far outside) come into the area looking for unlocked high(er)-value cars. A lot of times, the unlocked car will have the key fob left inside.

As the offenders have gotten more brazen, they will enter an unlocked car in a driveway and activate the garage door opener. Voilà, open garage door. The offender now has access to whatever car is kept in the garage (which sometimes has the fob left inside), or, in some cases, they’ll walk right inside your home to look for the fob while you’re sleeping.

So why have they chosen to target our area? Because we generally feel safe here. No one in Newark is leaving their car unlocked and the key fob in the cupholder. But here in Barnegat, where I grew up in a house that never had the front door locked and left both my keys and my wallet in my unlocked car… well, we tend to think we’re immune from that stuff here.

So how do we stop it? We have great cops, great detectives, and a Prosecutor’s Office that does an excellent job pursuing justice in these cases– but the truth is, as long as there are easy targets here, it’s most likely going to keep occurring.

There is one theme that you might notice, though. It all starts with unlocked cars. So if we want it to stop, we simply need to lock our car doors. That’s 99% of the battle.

So you can continue to sleep soundly. We’re not devolving into a crime-ridden city inundated with home invasions. But if you leave your car unlocked with the key in it, it might get stolen.

And if you leave your car unlocked when your car is equipped with a garage door opener, you’re potentially giving anyone who opens that car door access to your home.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and please lock your car doors!!

–Chief