Police are using surveillance video from homes and businesses and tips from alert neighbors to try to catch people stealing from vehicles.
So far this summer, police across the county have been called multiple times when residents awoke to find someone has rummaged through their vehicles.
At least four more cases were reported overnight Tuesday, including a gun stolen from one vehicle and four other vehicles rummaged through in Paris Estates on the east side of Franklin. Investigators were able to collect a handprint from one vehicle, according to the police report. Another resident of Deer Run, a subdivision off U.S. 31, reported someone had broken the back window of their vehicle and stolen items from inside, the report said.
Police are also getting help from residents and business owners.
The owner of a Greenwood business on Madison Avenue contacted police about three men caught on surveillance camera trying the door handles of locked work vehicles Monday night.
A resident on Harvest Ridge Circle in Simon Farms in Franklin, where at least four vehicles were rummaged through during the weekend, is also turning over home surveillance video that shows a man looking into his vehicle parked in his driveway, the report said.
Another resident on Grand Canyon Circle in Cumberland Commons in Franklin called police about 2 a.m. Wednesday when she saw two men using flashlights and looking into her neighbor’s vehicles. The resident called out to the men to ask what they were doing, and when they responded they were looking for something, she yelled back that she knew they weren’t, according to the police report. Several vehicles were rummaged through in that neighborhood earlier this month.
The two men then ran, and the resident called the police. Officers searched the area but did not find the men, the report said.
Police continue to investigate the recent reports of thefts from vehicles and have continued to advise residents to lock their vehicles.
