By: Madison Fugate

On August 31st the City of Stanton Police Department released some disturbing news to the citizens of Powell County. It appears there has been a series of robberies from vehicles in Powell County within these most recent weeks. After several reports have been made of local residents missing items from their vehicles the next day, an open investigation is now underway at the City of Stanton Police Department in an effort to put a stop to these criminal acts. It is evident these perpetrators are acting out these crimes in the darkest hours and some reports have been made of missing items and hearing strange noises of car doors and some reports of hearing motorbikes outside their homes between the hours of 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. Seeking any valuable item they can get their hands on with no specific target, many are said to be missing guns, electronics and monies that were left in their unlocked vehicles. The city of Stanton Police Department released this statement and description of the crime activity to the public, “The criminals are using the cover of darkness, going car to car, pulling on door handles until they find one that is open.  These individuals are taking guns, electronics and monies left in these unlocked vehicles. We are attempting to locate these individuals but wanted to pass along the following safety tips. Make sure when you leave your vehicle unoccupied that you lock the doors.  These individuals are only, at the moment, pulling on door handles until they find an open door. Remove all valuables from your vehicle.  Like everyone, we all leave stuff in our car out of ease. Whether that’s our work iPad or wallet, these items are easily removable from an unlocked car and are even harder to track back down.  Attempt to make sure all important items that can be taken in are done to prevent them from growing legs and walking off. Finally, never ever leave a firearm or handgun in a vehicle while being unoccupied.  These devices not only can be deadly but most people do not write the serial numbers down for these weapons and that prevents us from entering the gun as stolen and sometimes we are unable to return a located gun to the owner because we don’t know who it belongs to with no serial number to go by. We are working to make the city safer and will work on locating these individuals disrupting our city. Thanks!” Many homeowners in the area have since invested in security systems and cameras since news spread of these acts to prevent these sort of crimes from happening in their own homes.