Police advising residents to lock car doors after recent string of South Hills break-ins

BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. — Police are advising residents to lock their car doors after a recent string of break-ins in the South Hills.

Law enforcement tells Channel 11 these thieves are fast. They dress in all black, wear masks and go car to car, pulling door handles to see what’s unlocked before grabbing what they can and moving on to the next car.

“First and foremost lock your vehicles, that’s the bottom line,” said Bridgeville Police Chief Chad King.

It’s a simple, but critical warning King after what happened in the area Wednesday. A still picture grabbed from a neighbors trail cam shows one of the suspects who combed through Crestview, May, Calvert, Eisner and Osceola streets.

“One of our residents spotted an individual walking down the street on a phone and they felt it was suspicious so they called us,” King said.

Police responded immediately, thwarting the suspects plans. In a period of less than an hour, authorities believe the people involved hit 14 cars.

“Inflation is a big cause of this because they’re looking to get easy, fast money,” King said.

The crooks take loose change, cash, gift cards and even a gun.

“It’s just a sign of the times that we’re in. This isn’t going on just in Bridgeville it’s going on in neighboring communities, neighboring counties, it’s everywhere,” King explained. “South Fayette, Upper Saint Clair, Peters Township, Jefferson Hills, pretty much every jurisdiction you can point your finger.”

King said his department is in coordination with other departments, using modern technology to help pinpoint who is behind it. Right now, it doesn’t appear that suspects in the Bridgeville are the same suspects in other regional cases.

“As of recently we can’t say it’s the same group of people in each community,” King said.

King said other than locking your doors, neighbors in areas that are experiencing this crime can look at their doorbell video cameras and send anything helpful to police in the area. The same goes for trail cams that take still pictures.

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