DRIVERS have been urged to take extra care when locking up their cars and homes after 10 vehicles worth an estimated £152,000 were stolen over just two days.
Cars including a Range Rover Sport, a Mini, an Audi Q7, a BMW Z4 and a Jaguar XF Sport were stolen in North and South Lanarkshire between Wednesday night and yesterday morning.
Many of the thefts were the result of thieves breaking into houses through back doors and windows and taking keys.
The Range Rover was stolen from the car park of the Hilton Hotel in Strathclyde Business Park after thieves forced open a locker within the hotel and took the keys. Police said they are at the early stages of their inquiry but it is thought the thefts are linked.
Officers have urged people to take extra care not to leave their car keys on display, and have also appealed for any car buyers or dealerships who may have been offered any of the cars for sale to contact them.
Properties targeted have been in Dunellan Way and Dunellan Place in Moodiesburn, Lochearnhead Road in Stepps, Princess Gate in Bothwell, Oak Fern Drive in East Kilbride, Ettrick Street in Wishaw and Dunnock Place, Coatbridge.
Sergeant Ross Aitken said: "I would like to remind householders to be mindful as to where they keep both their house and car keys, particularly overnight.
"Please do not leave them near your front or back doors or windows where thieves can easily see them and reach them, please keep them hidden away - don't give thieves a helping hand to steal your hard-earned possessions.
"I'd like to remind householders to ensure they keep their home as secure as possible. If you have window locks, use them, particularly if you are leaving the property or retiring for the evening. The same goes for your car."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article