SAN ANTONIO – As the holiday shopping season ramps up, car break-ins are becoming increasingly concerning, especially as thieves target shoppers leaving gifts and valuables inside their vehicles.
On Tuesday night, three cars were reported broken into at Life Time Fitness, a popular gym at The Rim Shopping Center, according to San Antonio police records.
Jacob Lehman, a gym-goer at Life Time Fitness, told KSAT on Wednesday that he was shocked to learn a truck had been burglarized.
“I’ve never really seen anything sketchy going on,” Lehman said. “I lock my car, and I haven’t really heard anyone in the gym talking about anything.”
Despite security presence at the facility, the car break-ins still happened.
“I see the security guard cruising around, and I wave to him, so yeah, luckily, I’ve had no issues,” Lehman said.
While the gym is near shopping areas, the spike in break-ins during the holiday season is not unusual. Thieves often target shopping centers where shoppers may leave gifts and personal items in their cars while visiting multiple stores.
London Floyd and Melanie Vo, two shoppers at The Rim, echoed the sentiment of many others.
“We’re both last-minute shopping right now,” Floyd said. “I’m really good at last-minute shopping.
“I always put it off until the very end,” Vo said.
According to LexisNexis, a community crime map that San Antonio police use, South Park Mall has reported 137 incidents over the past year. The Quarry reported 119 and La Cantera had 100 over the same period of time.
According to LexisNexis’ map, North Star Mall reported a number of incidents (98) similar to La Cantera.
Although the crime map shows only 16 incidents at The Rim, Vo, who works nearby, warns others to be cautious.
“Everyone I tell that goes here, I’m kind of, like, ‘Be careful of your car and everything,’ just because I do hear about it a lot,” Vo said. “This area, you see a lot of break-ins and you hear a lot of stories about it.”
Other malls, such as Ingram Park Mall and Rolling Oaks Mall, also reported incidents, with 69 and 20 thefts, respectively, in the past year.
