A map of recent vehicle prowls in Bellingham

Written by Caleb Hutton | The Bellingham Herald | June 23, 2012

By Caleb Hutton

It seemed like a lot more vehicle prowls than usual were reported this week on the Bellingham police log.

So to better understand any trends, I decided to visualize vehicle break-ins from June 16 to 22, with help from Google Maps.

Here are the takeways:

Don’t leave your car unlocked.
Right now, that’s really good advice if you park near the Lake Padden trails.
Or if you live in the numbered streets east of Interstate 5.
Not a single vehicle prowl was reported in Fairhaven this week.

View Bellingham vehicle prowls and thefts from June 16 to 22 in a larger map

And a few more things to keep in mind:

Each point represents a single case. A case might include two break-ins. If two cases were filed in the same 100 block, I changed the last two digits of the address to “01″ or “02,” for the sake of seeing it better on the map.
This only maps to the nearest 100 block (for example, 1155 N. State St. would come up as the 1100 block of North State Street).
By my hand count, that’s about 40 vehicle prowls, a couple of vehicle thefts and one vehicle arson. Only one arrest.
These are only reported crimes. Many more may have gone unreported.

Tags: bellingham, bellingham police, police blotter, vehicle prowl, vehicle theft

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8 comments on “A map of recent vehicle prowls in Bellingham”

drug avenger on June 24, 2012 at 2:51 am said:

start using trail cams lots of them and we will catch them…no problem..
drug avenger on June 24, 2012 at 2:53 am said:

use trail cams and use lots of them…
Marti on June 24, 2012 at 2:58 am said:

Thanks for taking the time to post these locations!
Marti on June 24, 2012 at 2:59 am said:

THANKYOU for taking the time to post these specific locations!
Jo on June 24, 2012 at 5:52 am said:

had my car rummaged through on 34th street on thursday night as well – but nothing taken that i could see.
SMB on June 24, 2012 at 1:41 pm said:

Well, my truck was ripped off in April, just a mile south of Fairhaven. That was 8 months after the stereo was stolen from it. No one is immune from theft so stay vigilant.
Fred Meyer on June 24, 2012 at 7:21 pm said:

My car has been ripped off and gone through on the south hill at least 5 times in the last six months.

This has been going on for years with about the same regularity. The police are unable/unwilling to do any thing about it.
DF on June 25, 2012 at 8:14 am said:

I live in the Daylight Apts on State street and use a parking pass to park in the Herald lot. I go to work around the time the bars close and people are constantly messing with my car. I have seen drunk people who park in that lot for the bars repeatedly stumble in their car and drive off, usually the opposite way on State st. I have also seen drunk people crash in to parked cars in this lot, i always have my phone ready. I wish i could hire a cop to sit in this lot!