On Wednesday, June 28, between the hours of 1 - 5 a.m., a series of burglaries and vehicle tamperings occurred in various locations throughout McLean. In total, three homes and 16 vehicles were burglarized.
One or more thieves gained entry to two of the homes using garage door openers that were taken from unlocked vehicles at the homes. The third home was not locked. Twelve of the 16 cars were not locked, and the other four vehicles had windows broken.
"The big problem was that they had their cars in the driveways, but left them unlocked, and with the garage door opener in the car," said Master Police Officer (MPO) Tom Harrington. "That means I have access to your home. If people are going to do that they should at least lock the garage door that leads to the inside of the house."
Police said that all property taken from the vehicles was in plain view. According to Officer Harrington, most of the property that was stolen was taken from the cars. These items included purses, cash, credit cards, Blackberrys and iPods.
At this time, Fairfax County Police are unsure as to whether the burglaries were committed by an individual, or by a group. The suspect or suspects went relatively undetected throughout the night, and most of the victims did not discover they had been robbed until the morning.
"One woman heard a car alarm go off," said Harrington. "That's what gave us our time frame."
Officer Tom Black said that citizens need to lock their cars and keep their belongings out of sight.
"This is the time of the year we have a lot of kids floating around late at night with nothing to do," said Black. "These types of crimes happen every year when the kids get out of school, so please assist the police by reporting anybody suspicious in your neighborhood."