Garage Break-ins Common in Waterford

A number of homes in Waterford reported garage break-ins this week. Police are currently investigating one that occurred at about 6 p.m. on Tuesday on Douglas Lane in the Vauxhall Street Extension area and at least two that happened on Lakes Pond Road near the Waterford Speed Bowl.

Such reports suggest that Waterford is experiencing a sudden spree of garage burglaries but police say they haven’t received any more calls than usual for break-ins.

Police Lt. Brett Mahoney, head of Waterford Police Department’s Detective Bureau, says he wouldn’t describe the recent incidents as a “rash” of burglaries. Unfortunately, he says, it’s more like a steady stream.   

“We have people that attempt to take items from people’s outbuildings all the time,” says Mahoney. “These burglaries occur fairly constantly. Month after month we see these shed or garage burglaries.”

The problem isn’t unique to Waterford, either. Mahoney says surrounding towns have similar problems. Typically, the thieves take only items that are easy to carry. A Patch reader, who lives on Lakes Pond Road, says a chain saw, a power drill, frozen food from the freezer in her garage, and a pack of cigarettes were taken from her garage. Mahoney says theives often pass up more valuable equipment, such as snow blowers, in favor of smaller power tools.  

“Most of the time, we find that the people who do it are drug dependent and they steal for the quick return for the money to buy drugs,” Mahoney says.

In some cases, the police are able to locate stolen items and return them to their owners. Mahoney says police in Waterford frequently monitor EBay, Craig’s List, and local pawn shops looking for items that have been reported stolen or for deals that seem too good to be true.  

Catching the thieves in the act is a tougher proposition, however, because these crimes tend to be random and, as the latest burglaries suggest, happen all over town.

“It would sure make things a lot easier for us if we could say this area here is more susceptible, because we’d saturate the area,” says Mahoney.

Police look for patterns but even the professional ring of thieves that plagued East Lyme last year chose homes at random, Mahoney says. Trying to find a pattern in thefts committed by individal drug addicts, whose behavior is erratic to begin with, is next to impossible.

“We tell people to lock their homes for a reason,” Mahoney says.