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Lolo vehicle break-ins prompt reminder

Lolo vehicle break-ins prompt reminder
Posted at 9:14 AM, Aug 02, 2019
and last updated 2019-08-02 11:17:19-04

LOLO - Residents in Lolo are being advised to protect their values after a recent rash of vehicle break-ins.

Glass littered the 1100 block of Tyler Way on Thursday morning after a vandalism spree left car windows shattered along the street

"This morning at approximately 3 a.m. we had a report of a window being broken in and a deputy responded when he got there he had noticed that the front window of the drivers car had been completely smashed out," Missoula County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Brenda Bassett said. "Shortly after we started seeing several reports that at least sixteen vehicles had either their front window smashed in or all three."

It’s been difficult to catch criminals who commit theses kind of crimes in the past, but in today’s day and age investigators have a new tool -- cameras.

"A lot of people in the Lolo area -- actually surprising enough -- have really good surveillance cameras outside their homes and we have received really good video from...ring videos...that have helped us bring suspect into custody," Bassett said.

People should be locking up valuables at night -- and it might be time to look into one of the many options of at home surveillance.

"We always tell people to lock their stuff up, and then additionally having surveillance video is huge," Bassett told MTN News. "Like I said, just a few weeks ago we got this amazing video and you can see a guy sneaking up to the car and testing the handles and within just a day our detective was able to Id him through the video."

Investigators say that in the most recent incident, they are looking for a white male who was seen running from the scene wearing a black hoodie.