THEFTS ON RISE

Better lock the car, check the windows and bolt the
door.

The St. Thomas Police Service is reporting a rise in thefts and drug
abuse this year, with incidents of stolen goods reaching almost 20 per
cent higher than in 2007.

The greatest increase has been over the last two months, said Const.
Anders Nielsen, who counted 196 incidents this year compared to 165
last year between June 1 and July 31.

That's an increase of 31, or 18.8 per cent.

The numbers are consistent looking back over the year, with 479
incidents reported between Jan. 1 and July 31, compared to 424
reported last year in the same time frame -- an increase of 55, or 13
per cent.

"It is obvious just by looking at this that the big increase, the huge
difference is in the area of June and July," said Nielsen, adding that
in the last two months account for more than half of the thefts
reported to date.

"That's just straight thefts, where someone has stolen something from
a store, from a car, whatever. But it doesn't include break-and-enters
or car thefts or anything like that," Nielsen said.

While he couldn't name a specific cause for this year's high-reaching
numbers, Nielsen did say that an increase in drug-related charges
could be one factor.

"When you see an increase in drug abuse, you see an increase in the
other crimes. The drug user needs money to buy drugs. So they steal,
they break into places," he said. "It's like a vehicle drawing a
trailer ... you've got the drug abuse and right behind it are all the
other property crimes that we deal with.

But he said the numbers on those are not representative, since many
drug crimes go unreported, or the police never make the arrest.

"The stats I've got are arrests, but it doesn't paint a true picture
of what's out there because we don't catch most of them."