'Something Has To Be Done'

Deterrents Include Education, Courts

It's early in the morning, time to get ready for work. You turn on the coffee pot, shower and get dressed. It's cold outside, so you run out to your car in the driveway and start it up. You run back inside to grab your traveling coffee mug and briefcase.

You go back outside and -- gasp! -- the car is gone.

Does this sound familiar? It will to many Prince Georgians.

About one-third of the stolen cars in the county were swiped with the keys in them, according to the Maryland Vehicle Theft Prevention Council, which tracks auto theft statistics and works to prevent and reduce the stealing of cars and trucks.

"People will go out to their cars to warm them up in the winter and cool them off in the summer," said Vernon R. Herron, the county's public safety director and co-chairman of its Auto Theft and Vandalism Prevention Task Force. "It's really tantamount to leaving your keys in the front door of your home."

It's also against the law. Prince George's County government and law enforcement officials want to make sure residents know that.

In March, Phil Lee, a community activist from Kettering, spent an hour canvassing his neighborhood with police officers to find people who had their car running in their driveway, "encouraging some of these children to steal."

Thirty-eight warnings were issued.

Including all the cars that are taken while the engines are not running, nearly 18,500 vehicles were stolen in Prince George's County last year.

"The bottom line is, whether it's 6,000 or 16,000, it's too many," Lee said. "Something has to be done."

Lee and about four dozen others appointed to a task force in January by County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) are charged with figuring out what that "something" should be.

"We realize that we have a disproportionate amount of auto thefts in Prince George's County compared to other jurisdictions in the state, and we wanted to evaluate what we're doing and what others are doing," Herron said. "I believe when our operation is fully in place, we'll have a decrease in auto thefts."