The Marin County Sheriff’s Office is reporting a spike in “smash and grab” vehicle burglaries in Marin City.
The department received 17 reports in January and one so far this month, said Marin County sheriff’s Sgt. Brenton Schneider. In 2019, there were 33 auto burglaries in Marin City the entire year.
“Deputies are actively patrolling Marin City and providing directed extra patrol on a daily basis to try and deter further auto burglaries,” Schneider said. “In addition, we recently started supplying businesses with ‘Hide, Lock and Take’ signs to help deter auto burglaries and thefts from vehicles.”
He said these signs are posted in parking lots throughout Marin County, except in one of the main areas in Marin City where these burglaries occurred.
“We offered them to the Gateway Shopping Center in Marin City where a lot of auto burglaries occur and they declined hanging the signs in their parking lot,” he said.
John Waters, managing director for Gerrity Group, the property owners of Gateway Shopping Center, said the request by the sheriff’s department was only denied because company is looking into different types of signs.
“They asked us sometime in the second half of January and we dug into it,” Waters said. “This is happening all over California so that’s what we are doing, looking at different types of graphics that share same message.”
He said the company expects to put up signage within the next 30 to 45 days.