Cottage Grove thieves target unlocked cars to burglarize garages

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Thieves found an easy way to get into more than a dozen Cottage Grove garages in recent weeks: they used garage door openers.

Cottage Grove police had at least 13 such reports in recent weeks.

In most cases, suspects found entered unlocked vehicles parked in driveways and used the electronic garage door opener to get into the garage.

After police received burglary reports from homeowners, they checked nearby areas and found other homes with open garage doors in the middle of the night, contacted the homeowners and confirmed burglaries had occurred. In most cases, nothing of considerable value was stolen. Some homeowners reported money, CDs and garden tools stolen. Usually the garage door opener was missing from the vehicle.

An initial group of at least four burglaries were reported after 3 a.m. April 4. They occurred in the 9500, 9600 and 9700 blocks of Dunes Avenue and in the 9500 block of Dunes Lane.

Nine more burglaries were reported early in the morning of April 11. They happened in the following areas:7200 block of Timber Trail; 6500 block of Hadley Avenue; 7000 block of 71st Street; 6100 block of Hearthstone Avenue; 6500 block of Hadley Circle; 6600 block of Timber Ridge Lane Court; 6700 block of Wildrye Circle; 7300 block of Burr Oak Avenue; and the 6500 block of Bluestem Lane.

-Scott Wente

Tags: crime and courts, updates, crime