Car burglaries on the rise in Austin

Austin police say there has been an uptick  in car burglaries during the last several months. They've caught a few suspects but, are still looking for more.

Lupe Moreno's surveillance camera caught this suspect breaking into her car. The suspect leaves at one moment but turns around and comes back again. He starts rummaging through the car. It's a scene becoming all too common as of late, in Austin.

“I see so many of them and I see so many victims,” Det. Bobby Bowers, Austin Police Department, said.

Bowers says there seems to be more car burglaries going on within the past few months. He works around 200 cases every month.

“There are some organizations or groups, who operate together. They come up from Houston or San Antonio,” Bowers said.

He says they've caught a few members of this group but not all. They tend to target the Northwest Austin area. He says some criminals have even sat outside of a daycare early in the morning.

“Ninety-five-percent of the time the mom would have the purse right there on the passenger seat and take the child in,” Bowers said.

Recently, Chris Futrell of East Austin, had his truck broken into.

“He broke my window and then took some company currency and various other items out,” Futrell said.

Futrell quickly reported the incident to police. As of now he still doesn't know who it was who broke in.

“We assumed it was maybe some homeless person,” Futrell said.

Detective Bowers recommends drivers not keep valuable items in their cars.

“Medical cards are in there, checkbooks. People have all the things in there they need,” he said.

Advice for the drivers, take all your valuables with you. Sometimes locking them in the trunk is not good enough.

The detective says these crimes are also unpredictable. Some weeks the numbers remain steady others, they spike randomly making it hard to take many preventative measures.