Sitka Police are calling for Sitkans to lock their cars after a recent uptick in car thefts.
Police spokesperson Serena Wild said in the most recent incident, an officer found a car submerged in the water on Back Beach early Thursday (10-19-23) morning.
“We discovered that the vehicle, [which] had been taken out of storage, and had been joyridden around, was on Back Beach stuck in the sand, unable to move,” Wild said.
“The tide did come in and covered the vehicle,” she added. “This morning, once the tide had gone out…officers were able to go with the owner and retrieve it from back beach. Unfortunately, that was yet another vehicle that had had its keys left in it, and the people rifling through were able to locate them.”
Wild said cars aren’t disappearing from one particular location, though on occasion Sitkans have been known to mistakenly drive the wrong cars home from the airport, since leaving keys in the ignition is common.
Seven cars have been reported stolen so far this year in Sitka, five of them since September. Four of those cases have been investigated by police. At the end of last month, a car parked in front of a home on Edgecumbe Drive was stolen in the middle of the night. The car was recovered, but police still don’t know who took it.
Police are advising Sitkans to lock their vehicles, secure their keys and avoid leaving valuables inside cars.
