There has been an increase in the number of night time burglaries of vehicles in the Steiner Ranch area. The majority of them have been unlocked vehicles parked outside and have had items in plain view stolen, such as Ipods and GPS systems. In a few of the cases entry has been gained by breaking a window or the sunroof. In many of the cases wallets and purses have been stolen from the vehicles. It is very important to always lock vehicles and to not keep any items of value inside them.

If anyone has any information on these incidents please contact Detective Paul Salo at (512) 854-4310 or e-mail at paul.salo@co.travis.tx.us

Need to get your garage organized and cleaned out. Sell some of your stuff by posting on the classified forums.

First I presume you have seen this notice from the Steiner Ranch website and email list.

Vandalism in Steiner Ranch

The Travis County Sheriff’s Office needs your help.

Five cases of criminal mischief have occurred on 12/04-12/05 during the night hours in the Steiner Ranch Subdivision on Central Park. Vehicles parked in the driveway have been shot with a BB gun or pellet gun to the rear window of the vehicles.

There are no suspects at this time. If you have any information please contact Detective Don Rios of the Travis County Sheriffs office at 512-854-4313.

If not, there it is. I have a friend who was actually one of the victims of this crime and he sent me this email.

Sunday morning, when we woke up, we noticed that the tail gate window of our Odyssey van had been broken. On our road, Central Park, two more vehicles had been similarly vandalized. I called the cops and he filed the case under criminal mischief category. Nothing was stolen. The cop mentioned that a total of 13 vehicles (at least that was what he had heard as of 9:15AM Sunday) were vandalized.

Last month, my immediate neighbors (left and right) – both of their vehicles were similarly vandalized. At that time my neighbor knew about 5 such vehicles had their windows broken.

And apparently this has been going on for nearly 4 months with no end in sight. And these tend to happen on Friday and Saturday nights.

The cop advised us that if we park the cars on the driveway, we should park them facing the street and not facing the garage. I forgot to ask why he said that. But that was his advice.

I think the number of cases is higher than five though as the email suggests. I also think most of these cases are occurring near/in Parkside.

The other cases of crime were earlier in the year with the break-in to Steiner Ranch Wine and Liquor and stealing laptops and things out of garages in Lantana Ridge documented by this blog.

General Tips to avoid the crime:

1. Put your laptop bag/briefcase in the trunk of your car at all times. When burglars see these bags they will at least break your windows trying to get in and at most will take everything lying around in your car.
2. Park you car in the garage.
   1. If you don’t have space in your garage, then clean your garage out and then park your car in the garage. You don’t need all that stuff in their anyway.
   2. If you really can’t clean out your car, then park your car backwards, with the back windshield facing your garage. It is much harder to shootout your front window then your back, so they don’t try it. They also don’t want to run around to the back of your car and shoot it out. They want to roll down the window and do a drive by and shoot out your back window. So park backwards, that might help.
3. Close your garage door unless you see half the street talking outside. I usually don’t ever leave my garage door open unattended, unless I see neighbors outside talking and kids playing. I remember a story from my old neighborhood when a guy got stuff stolen from his garage when he had his garage door open while mowing his backyard. So no time is safe.
4. Last but not least, be careful and alert. That will probably help you the most