The Brookhaven Police Department has seen an increase in vehicle burglaries recently, and most of them have occurred because vehicles were left unlocked.

Brookhaven Police Department Commander David Johnson encourages people to make sure their vehicles stay locked. He said the department has received just one report of a burglary where the car had been physically broken into. In that case, there were valuables left in plain sight.

“That’s been the Achilles heel of all this,” Johnson said. “We stress that people take the initiative to remove valuables from sight in their vehicles.”

Police department reports from Monday listed nine instances of vehicle burglary. Johnson said some calls are reported as vehicle burglaries even if nothing is taken.

Johnson said the vehicle burglaries have taken place mostly around North Jackson Street and the Field Lark Lane area around 2 and 3 a.m. in the morning. He said the burglaries from Monday occurred around 7:30 and 8 a.m.

With the way the burglaries are being reported, Johnson said it appears someone is walking driveway-to-driveway checking vehicles. He said by doing so it’s possible to check 10 to 12 cars and if most of those are left open it could mean a high number of hits for the burglar. He said they’ve had a report for as many as two or three cars burglarized in the same driveway.

“We do have some promising leads,” Johnson said. “Hopefully before tomorrow we have some arrests.”

He said they were able to recover one of the purses stolen in one of the recent burglaries.

“We’re doing all we can,” he said. “Patrolling the areas where these happen as well trying to maintain our regular patrolling area. But to help us help you, the best thing the public can do is do a better job of securing their belongings and securing their vehicles.”