Guns stolen during car prowls ending up in hands of felons

KENNEWICK, Wash.-- As businesses closed and more people in the Tri-Cities were spending time at home, the number of burglaries at businesses and the reports of items stolen from parked cars started to rise.

"In 2020, we had over 790 car prowls, which is a significant increase over 2019," said Lt. Aaron Clem with the Kennewick Police Department.

The bigger challenge for law enforcement officers, is the fact that in those car prowls, 28 firearms were stolen from vehicles.

"That is a real difficult challenge for us as law enforcement, because those guns go on to be used in crimes-- not only the Tri-Cities, but across the state-- and potentially used against our officers," Clem said.

Of the 28 firearms that were stolen from vehicles in 2020, 26 were removed from vehicles that had been left unlocked.

"Three of those firearms have been recovered," Clem said. "One of the guns was recovered locally from a convicted felon, one of them in Yakima, and one of them in King County. So, you can see how these stolen guns are making their way across the northwest."

Clem said the biggest thing gun owners can do to prevent their firearms from ending up in the wrong hands is to never leave weapons in a vehicle, especially an unlocked vehicle.

"Take the firearm inside the house you, or take it with you wherever you're going, so you're not leaving that gun inside your vehicle. These vehicle prowls are crimes of opportunity, where people are walking through neighborhoods, they're walking through parking lots, just checking door handles and if they find an unlocked door, they'll enter the vehicle and see if they can find something valuable."

In 73% of the car prowl cases in 2020, the vehicles had been left unlocked.

Clem says it's important to remove all valuables from vehicles, especially overnight, and keep cars locked when they're not attended to reduce your chances of becoming a victim of theft.