Someone left a car running at the Citgo gas station on Whalley Saturday, went inside to the convenience store — and came back out to find someone else taking off with the vehicle.
Top West Hills/ Westville/ West Rock/ Amity/ Beverly Hills cop Lt. Elliott Rosa tells that story in his latest weekly video report (above) on crimes in the district.
“Please,” Rosa implores viewers after relating that incident. “Do not leave your vehicle running at the gas station.”
Rosa also tells of how someone left a car unlocked on Blake street a day earlier. The car’s owner returned to the car to find a “teenaged male going through” the car, then “take off running” with a “black diaper bag with miscellaneous items inside.”
Rosa’s lesson: Lock your car.
On Feb. 18, someone stole a .380 handgun pistol from a car on South Genesee St. The owner thought they’d locked the vehicle, but cops saw no signs of forced entry.
The owner also “went through the vehicle touching everything” before cops arrived. That made it harder for officers to collect prints and track down the culprit, Rosa says. And it happens all the time.
Having been the victim of a theft from a car himself, Rosa says, he understands the impulse: “You feel victimized. You want to go through your vehicle.”
But, he pleads, people should resist that temptation. “Trust me. Please try to hold onto your emotion.”