€30.6m worth of items stolen from vehicles since 2016; shoppers urged not to leave valuables in cars

Christmas shoppers have been warned to take extra steps to ensure they don't leave valuables in view of "travelling gangs" that are targeting vehicles, including those parked housing estates, in the rup-up to Christmas.

The force warned that €30.6m worth of items have been taken from vehicles over the past four years and that new figures from the Garda Analysis Service show that 46,582 vehicles were broken into since January 2016. Of those, 8,157 vehicles were reported to have been unlocked.