Don't Make Your Car a 'Hot' Prospect for Thieves in the Cold

This message is courtesy of the East Ridge Police Department.

The weather is starting to look and feel like winter.

Going outside to a cold and sometimes frozen car can be a terrible way to start the day. If you don’t have one of those automatic starters where you can start and warm up your car while keeping it locked, you may have tried starting your car the manual way, getting it warm while you prepare to leave the house.

But for some, starting your car to get it warm, or even leaving it running while you run into a store can end up with your car being stolen. If you have a way to keep your car running while locked or with an anti-theft system in place, make sure it can’t be engaged by someone looking for a free ride. If you have to leave your keys in the ignition to keep it running, chances are you may come back to find that your ride has left without you.

This time of year there are more car thefts because people leave their cars running just to keep them warm. There have already been several reported vehicle thefts in East Ridge due to leaving the vehicles running.

Please be safe and make sure to turn your vehicles off and lock the doors before entering a store. If you do leave it running, make sure to have a secondary key and keep all doors locked. Don’t give a thief the gift of your car this Holiday Season.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.