SOUTHINGTON, Conn. — People in Southington are banding together to try to address the issue of car break-ins. Southington Police say in 2020, they had 93 reports of stolen cars and 410 car break-ins. That's more than triple the number of break-ins in 2019. Some residents say they have had enough and want to do something about it.
"The frustration in this town is coming to a boil," said Michael Leone of Southington.
After constantly seeing posts about break-ins on the community Facebook page, he posted an idea about creating a neighborhood watch group for people to inform one another about suspicious activity. In about a week, the group has taken off.
"I thought I might get a couple of people interested in starting a watch and to my amazement, we're up to 3,500 members within a week with about 40 leaders volunteering to organize their own local neighborhood groups," said Leone.
Different neighborhoods now have their own Facebook groups that people can report to.
"To actually report suspicious vehicles, slow vehicles driving through neighborhoods at odd hours checking out things," said Leone. "Just to be eyes and ears and report to the police so they can respond," he said.
Group leaders say they what they don't want, is people taking matters into their own hands.
"The main focus is we're not looking to be vigilantes, we want the police notified, we don't want anyone chasing anyone down, make sure if you see something say something," said Janie Grazioso of Southington.
Residents say car break-ins seem to be happening nearly every day, at least multiple times a week. Rochela Drive was targeted on Monday evening.
"You know we've got kids playing outside it's happening between 4 and 7 o'clock so it's really concerning that there could be a confrontation, we just want this de-escalated," said Anthony Mongiello of Southington.
His fear is one that many others share, that the problem could get worse.
"Escalation. So right now they're just trying to get easy access and easy targets, but what if the easy targets start drying up? Do they try to break into the house?" he said.
In addition to reporting suspicious activity, the neighborhood watch group encourages people to take precautions to protect themselves like locking their cars. Also, keeping their driveways and yards well-lit, anything to make it difficult for thieves.
"Southington is not up for grabs. We're going to be watching you, we're going to be very diligent. You're going to need to go somewhere else or close shop,' said Grazioso.