The Eastern New Mexico News - Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

CLOVIS — It probably can’t hurt to lock your car doors.

In fact, getting into that habit might work to your benefit, especially as the city sees a rash of automobile burglaries in the early weeks of the new year.

In the first 23 days of January the Clovis Police Department took 14 reports of such burglaries, a 29 percent increase from the 10 reports received in the first few weeks of 2017, according to CPD Capt. Roman Romero.

More recently, CPD’s media blotter reflects four auto burglary reports on Friday alone, two of which came from different addresses on the 600 block of Chanticleer Place in northwest Clovis. Another such report is reflected from the blotter Monday and two more late Tuesday afternoon.

From Jan. 1-23 police noted “a rash of burglaries in a four block radius,” all of which occurred overnight and involved “no forced entry to any of the vehicles, making these burglaries opportunistic,” Romero said.

“There are a couple of lessons we can learn from this,” he wrote Tuesday in an email to The News. “First, lock your cars, especially if you keep personal articles in them. Take expensive items, (digital devices, phones, wallets), into your home. Never leave a firearm unattended in your vehicle. There are safes designed for storage, they are a great investment, but most people don’t invest in them. A little bit of diligence goes a long way.”