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Pittsburgh police seeing increase in car break-ins in Mount Washington

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh police are seeing an increased number of car break-ins in the Mount Washington area.

“Kid walked down the driveway nonchalantly. Unfortunately, I left my truck unlocked and he got right in sat in for a little bit and just left, took what he wanted,” said Jonathon Fallert, who lives in the neighborhood.

The security footage shows the whole situation from this week, and this family isn’t alone.

“For the last six months, it’s been going on about two to three times a month. My neighbor two doors down actually had his truck stolen out of his driveway,” Fallert said.

Pittsburgh police told Channel 11 that this is a large trend across the city in general. The targets are people whose cars are unlocked, running to heat up or even delivery drivers who leave the car on to make a delivery.

“Luckily, they didn’t take anything of real value out of the car, just some change and loose cash, but I’ve heard incidents of guns missing and keys to take the whole vehicle,” Fallert said.

When it comes to guns, police said people are often leaving them in plain view or not storing them properly.

To try to combat the growing problem, police are deploying specialized details to specifically prevent these types of thefts.

Residents hope these vandals are arrested before they take it to the next level.

“Especially having a kid at home, it’s unnerving for someone to have the audacity to walk down my driveway in the middle of the night and go into my car, you kind of wonder if your house is going to be next,” Fallert said.

This street of neighbors keeps reporting the break-ins to police, and that’s what police want so they can keep track of the crimes even if nothing was really taken.

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