By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

WEST CHESTER TWP. - Police across Greater Cincinnati are cautioning people to remove valuables from cars left parked overnight in driveways and on streets, amid a rash of break-ins and thefts.

Through Wednesday of this month in West Chester Township, police received reports of 24 thefts from cars - including five in the last three days. That's about one a day so far this month. Normally, West Chester sees about 20 every 30 days.

Among the missing: DVDs, CDs, PDAs, cellular telephones, laptop computers - and an unloaded .44-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun taken along with the locked, 25-pound safe it was stored in.

"One of the biggest issues we have out here are the valuables left in cars," West Chester Police Chief John Bruce said Thursday. "Patrol cars drive around at night and officers report seeing garage doors left open and car doors unlocked. These things are crimes of opportunity, and we have to take the opportunities away from people."

Hamilton County suburbs covered by the sheriff's office also are seeing a spike in thefts from cars, Steve Barnett, sheriff's spokesman, said Thursday.

On average, the sheriff's office takes about 80 to 85 reports of thefts from cars in a month. The reports come from the 10 townships - including Anderson, Symmes and Whitewater - that the sheriff's office covers, as well as the village of North Bend .

But in the past three months, those reports are shooting up past 100 each month, Barnett said.

In September, for instance, the sheriff's office took 146 reports of thefts from cars.

E-mail: jedwards@enquirer.com.