Police dealing with rash of car thefts; one man says it nearly happened to him twice in two weeks!



MILWAUKEE -- There has been a rash of vehicle thefts in and around Milwaukee -- and it seems no community in southeastern Wisconsin is immune to these crimes. The East Side has been hit hard, and one man tells FOX6 News he's been victimized twice in just two weeks!

"We walked out to our van this morning and noticed the doors were open," Tim Mosley said.

To anyone else, what Tim Mosley discovered on Monday morning, November 2nd would have been a big surprise. His wife's 2005 Chrysler Town & Country was targeted by crooks.

"The cylinder for the ignition was on the floor. Nothing was taken from the car," Mosley said.

Mosley tells FOX6 News the same thing happened to his 2004 Chevy Trailblazer two weeks ago.

"I guess the word is out -- go to this side of town and maybe you`ll get some stuff you don`t see in other parts of town," Mosley said.

The statistics are eye-opening.

MPD District 1 car thefts



Within the Milwaukee Police Department's District 1, which includes the city's East Side, there have been 331 reported thefts involving vehicles over the last six months. Since January, city-wide, there have been nearly 5,800 incidents.

Car thefts city-wide



"One week, we had three of them in here at one time," Peter Bilgo, who owns Riverside Automotive on the city's East Side said.

Bilgo says late 90s model vehicles (including Chrysler, Plymouth, Dodge) are easy targets for thieves, who are able to easily rip out the vehicle's ignition cylinder and start the engine with something as simple as a screwdriver.

Car thefts



"A skilled person could probably get into the car and steal it in a minute-and-a-half," Bilgo said.

Police say the numbers don't represent an increase in thefts -- saying they're actually on par with statistics from 2014.

"It happens in Shorewood, it happens in Riverwest, it`s happened in the south side," Bilgo said.

Shorewood police, for example, say there have been only eight thefts involving vehicles in the last six months -- down from 17 total in all of 2014.

Mosley says he just hopes Milwaukee police will increase patrols in his neighborhood -- especially at night.

"There are very few patrol cars that even go by. Last year, we didn`t see anything like this at all," Mosley said.