Pubdate: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 Source: St. Thomas Times-Journal (CN ON) Copyright: 2008 Osprey Media Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/HwkygYkf Website: http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/953 Author: Jackie Gill THEFTS ON RISE Better lock the car, check the windows and bolt the door. The St. Thomas Police Service is reporting a rise in thefts and drug abuse this year, with incidents of stolen goods reaching almost 20 per cent higher than in 2007. The greatest increase has been over the last two months, said Const. Anders Nielsen, who counted 196 incidents this year compared to 165 last year between June 1 and July 31. That's an increase of 31, or 18.8 per cent. The numbers are consistent looking back over the year, with 479 incidents reported between Jan. 1 and July 31, compared to 424 reported last year in the same time frame -- an increase of 55, or 13 per cent. "It is obvious just by looking at this that the big increase, the huge difference is in the area of June and July," said Nielsen, adding that in the last two months account for more than half of the thefts reported to date. "That's just straight thefts, where someone has stolen something from a store, from a car, whatever. But it doesn't include break-and-enters or car thefts or anything like that," Nielsen said. While he couldn't name a specific cause for this year's high-reaching numbers, Nielsen did say that an increase in drug-related charges could be one factor. "When you see an increase in drug abuse, you see an increase in the other crimes. The drug user needs money to buy drugs. So they steal, they break into places," he said. "It's like a vehicle drawing a trailer ... you've got the drug abuse and right behind it are all the other property crimes that we deal with. But he said the numbers on those are not representative, since many drug crimes go unreported, or the police never make the arrest. "The stats I've got are arrests, but it doesn't paint a true picture of what's out there because we don't catch most of them." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake