Gardaí warn car owners to lock vehicles following spree of break-ins

Gardaí are appealing to car owners to lock their vehicles following a spree of break-ins across the country.

Three thieves were caught on CCTV sneaking around a housing estate in Little Island, Co Cork, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, checking car doors to see if they were unlocked.

In the footage, two men can be seen going from car to car as a third man joins the gang and one takes a bike from the drive of the house.

In a separate incident, two cars were stolen and another was broken into during a robbery in East Cork.

Both cars were stolen from Killeagh while another car was broken into and a sum of cash was taken yesterday morning.

A total of 37 cars have been entered into across Cork County since last Sunday.

Meanwhile, two juveniles were arrested following reports of break-ins to cars in a housing estate on the Trim Road in Navan in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Gardaí were called to Balreask Manor around 2am where two suspects were found in the driveway of a house and a number of items were recovered.

Garda James O'Mahony of Kinsale Garda Station has warned car owners to lock their cars and remove all personal and important items from their cars, especially on the run-up to Christmas.

Speaking to Patricia Messinger on C103's Cork Today Show, he said:

Please lock your car and remove all items from the seats because these people are targetting cars that are unlocked and they're just driving around, driving into driveways in the early hours of the morning and opening the cars nice and handy.

"They have got items unfortunately, they've got personal items and they've got cash in glove compartments. Driving licences, for instance, might be in there.

"With criminals, that's a valuable thing for them to get their hands on.

"With Christmas coming now people will have presents in cars, very easy prey again. Christmas presents will be targeted, I've no doubt."

He said that the thieves are deliberately choosing houses that they know do not have CCTV so that there is less chance of them getting caught in the act.

Anyone who witnesses such a break-in should report the incident to their local garda station.