Four guns were stolen after eight cars were broken into within 24 hours, Gainesville Police said.
The cars were burglarized from Tuesday morning to Wednesday morning, GPD spokesperson Ofc. Ben Tobias said. All of the cars were unlocked.
In three of the cars, the unknown burglar or burglars stole weapons including four Glock handguns of different models and several knives, he said. The cars broken into were in about the same area along Northwest 34 Street between University Avenue and Eighth Avenue, Tobias said.
Car burglaries aren’t uncommon in Gainesville but weapons aren’t usually stolen out of cars more than twice a month, he said.
“To see so many happen over the course of 24 hours is scary,” Tobias said.
Although police are not sure when the cars were broken into, most of the incidents seemed to have happened overnight. Officers looked for witnesses, fingerprints and other possible victims in each burglary, Tobias said.
Police say the suspect or group of people pulled on car handles to check which were unlocked in one area.
“Part of the problem is preventative measures,” he said. “For many years, we’ve tried to get people to lock their cars.”
Contact Jessica Curbelo at jcurbelo@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @jesscurbelo
