By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Thieves are causing thousands of dollars in damage as they rip stereos from vehicles in two adjacent Butler County communities: eastern Hanover Township and Hamilton's west side.

In the past month, Hamilton police have fielded dozens of such reports from the city's west side. Hamilton High School's parking lot has been repeatedly hit, and so has the Bavarian Village apartments, where one man said his vehicle had been targeted three times, said Hamilton Police Lt. Scott Scrimizzi.

Meanwhile, the sheriff's office has received at least nine reports from Hanover - mostly from the small Alamo Heights subdivision just west of the Hamilton city limits.

Investigators think at least some of the cases are related because the same types of items are being taken from a relatively small area, said sheriff's Detective Monte Mayer.

Police say residents can take some basic steps to protect their property - such as parking in well-lit areas, installing a good-quality alarm system and locking their cars. "You'd be surprised at how many of these cars are unlocked," Scrimizzi said.

Sometimes, those steps might be insufficient. Alamo Heights resident Mike Taylor said a thief broke out the passenger-side window of his 1996 Jeep last month.

"Whoever's doing it is very gutsy. I mean, it happened right in front of my house," Taylor said. His loss: around $1,400.

A resident of the subdivision most of his life, Taylor, 26, said, "It's generally been a safe neighborhood." But the break-ins have been a frequent topic of conversation recently, he said; people wonder if police will catch the thieves.

Mayer, the sheriff's detective, said, "We've got some physical evidence; it's just a matter of putting it all together."

Scrimizzi, the Hamilton investigations supervisor, said it's extremely difficult for investigators to solve car break-ins without specific leads - such as a license plate number on a fleeing suspect's vehicle.

Further, he said, a change in Ohio law several years ago means that repeat offenders don't receive increasingly stiff penalties. "You can catch them 10 times - and the penalty is the same," he said.

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com