A rash of more than 60 car break-ins in a month has residents in a Philadelphia neighborhood on edge.
In a Facebook post on a Southwest Center City Philadelphia public community page late Monday afternoon, Steve Cobb, chief of staff to Councilman Kenyatta Johnson -- whose district covers the neighborhood -- wrote that there have been 79 thefts from auto reported in the entire 17th Police District in the last 30 days. The 17th District covers swaths of Southwest Center City, Point Breeze and South Philadelphia.
A smaller residential area of Southwest Center City between 17th and 25th streets and Lombard and Federal streets has been hit the hardest over the last month, according to a law-enforcement source. Within that area, 53 car break-ins have been reported since May 22, the source said.
Cobb wrote in his social-media post that 67 thefts from auto have occurred within the district's Police Service Area 1, which runs from Washington Avenue north to Lombard Street, and Broad Street west to the Schuylkill. Of the thefts from auto, about 60 percent involved Hondas, Cobb wrote.
"The 17th District police are aware of this trend and are actively investigating and implementing strategies to reduce this," he added. "The police have circulated flyers and used social media to notify residents about this rise in break-ins."
He urged any residents with surveillance cameras to check the footage and notify police if they spot anything unusual.
"I'm just frustrated," said Kevin Montgomery, a neighborhood resident whose Honda Civic was broken into twice in nine days. Montgomery said he first found his car broken into on Christian Street between 24th and 25th streets the morning of June 10. On Saturday morning, he walked outside to find his car broken into again -- with his window smashed -- on Madison Square between 24th Street and Grays Ferry Avenue, less than a block from the last break-in site.
"This is why your tax base is leaving," Montgomery, who works at a city university and has lived in the neighborhood for nearly four years, said of the city. "It's a neighborhood where property taxes went up 400 percent."
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The law-enforcement source said the thief or thieves have not been stealing parts from the cars, but taking items from inside. Police in the area are warning people not to leave their cars unlocked or leave anything valuable -- even loose change -- in plain sight.
In another string of car break-ins further south overnight, a police spokeswoman said, nine break-ins were reported on 29th Street near Snyder Avenue, in South Philadelphia, on Monday morning. There was no indication from police on Monday that those break-ins were connected with the ones in Southwest Center City.
