Full Notification

The Voorhees Police Department, along with numerous agencies on the eastern seaboard have been experiencing an increase in burglaries of vehicles.  Our Department has taken the following steps to investigate and deter these crimes, unfortunately, there is no way to measure how many crimes we have prevented.  

• Directed patrols of locations that have been identified through criminal intelligence methods as likely to have a car burglary occur.  These directed patrols have involved:
  • Marked, highly-visible, police vehicles conducting both random patrols, directed patrols based on intelligence, and community policing engagements.
  • Unmarked police vehicles
  • Undercover cars(not your standard Crown Vics and Explorers) conducting surveillance.
  • Plainclothes Detectives walking around
  • Portable camera trailers
  • Intelligence analysis

Although limited information is available on time/date/place/offender patterns, there are several patterns evident from those victimized:

• Some victims have left valuable items in plain view in their cars while out at a location that would tend to have them away for an extended timeframe (park, gym, etc.)
• Other victims have arrived at a location as described above, removed valuables once they are parked, and placed them in a backseat or trunk (observable by anyone who is casing the area)
• Some victims have locked their cars, others have not.  In cases where the actor(s) observed a valuable or observed the victim move a valuable and the doors were locked, actor(s) have smashed out car windows.

We urge our residents and visitors to call 911 immediately when they observe anything suspicious.  Some examples of suspicious behavior include the following:

• Clothing inappropriate for the location (i.e. person at a park not wearing athletic-style clothing, wearing gloves in the summer, obvious attempts at concealing identity such as glasses, hat, high collar, long sleeves)
• Vehicles occupied but occupants not appearing to be exiting to visit the site.
• Someone who appears to be acting as a lookout for police patrols.
• Vehicles that come and go from a location without anyone getting out of the car.

One of the biggest detriments to an effective apprehension is delayed or no call to 911.  Please trust your instincts and call us immediately to investigate.

The crime occurs in less than 30 seconds in some instances, please call 911 immediately to report suspicious activity.