Trailhead theft at Larrabee State Park is surging. Here’s how to help catch the thieves
Next time you go on a hike near Bellingham, you might want to think twice about leaving anything — and we mean anything — in your car.
Trailheads in and around Larrabee State Park have become a hotspot for car break-ins this summer, with a significant increase in incidents in the last month, said Park Ranger Kyle Christensen.
“They’re getting very brave,” Christensen said of the vehicle prowlers. “It’s probably one or two people, and they are going to keep doing it until they get arrested.”
Typically, Christensen receives at most one or two reports of trailhead theft per month. In the last three months, however, he has seen 11 reports of trailhead theft, six of which occurred between July 20 and July 31. And that doesn’t include incidents at Oyster Dome and Teddy Bear Cove, which are handled by the state patrol, or those that go unreported — many people don’t call the park or police when their cars get broken into, Christensen said.
All of the recent reports came from visitors parked at the Fragrance Lake trailhead, with the exception of three about vehicles parked on the road near the Lost Lake trailhead. These locations along the road are easy for thieves to quickly and discreetly smash windows and move on, Christensen said. Most of the recent incidents took place during weekdays, but the times of the incidents range throughout the day, from early in the morning to after dark.
“They know you are going to be gone for a few hours,” he said. “That’s why trailhead theft is so popular.”
Christensen hypothesizes that the increase in trailhead theft is related to the high visitation numbers the park has been experiencing this season.
“Weekdays have become weekends, and weekends have become holidays,” Christensen said. “There’s more people out and maybe more opportunity.”
In Bellingham, there were 271 reported vehicle prowl incidents city-wide between April and July this year, according to the police department’s crime statistics. That’s down from 346 vehicle prowls in that timeframe in 2020 and up from 207 in 2019.
How to avoid being robbed
People shouldn’t leave anything in their cars when they are parked at a trailhead or park, law enforcement officials advise. Some car prowlers will break a window for as little as a handful of spare change, said Lt. Claudia Murphy, public information officer for the Bellingham Police Department. Your vehicle should look like it’s just been cleaned out completely.
“They have little tiny punches that shatter your window and hardly anyone can hear it,” Murphy said. “They’re in and out in seconds. Our advice is leave nothing in the car. Take that which you need and that’s it.”
Car prowlers will often sit in parking lots pretending to check their tire pressure or wait for someone, when in reality they are observing people hide valuables in their trunks or glove compartments, she said. A prowler can watch 10 or 15 cars pull up to a park or trailhead and will likely see about a third of those visitors hiding valuables, Murphy guesses.
If Larrabee visitors see someone acting suspiciously at trailhead parking, Christensen asks them to please call the park and report it. He recommends folks park in official Larrabee parking lots, rather than along the road.
“We almost never have car prowls in day-use parking lots where you have to drive past a booth and gates,” Christensen said. “Those areas are a lot safer, but visitors have to purchase a Discover Pass to enter.”
If your valuables are stolen, you should immediately cancel any stolen credit cards, Murphy advised. Thieves will often head straight to the nearest store and use the credit card to purchase gift cards, which are then untraceable. If your Social Security card was stolen, the prowlers may also fill out an application for a credit card in your name.
Next, victims should report the theft to the police and the park, if the incident took place in one. When reporting to the Bellingham Police Department, the victim can either call 911 and wait for an officer to arrive on the scene or fill out a form on the police website under the “Reporting” tab.
Report, report, report
While stolen items are rarely recovered, officials say it’s important to report car prowling incidents for several reasons. At Larrabee State Park, it can help staff determine where to focus their prevention efforts, Christensen said. For police, it makes it easier to apprehend guilty car prowlers.
The police will sometimes catch a car prowler in the act of breaking into a car, Murphy said, which is a misdemeanor that will send them to municipal court. On occasion, the suspect will have a bag of stolen wallets and phones, raising their charge to possession of stolen property in the second degree, which is a felony, Murphy said. However, even if someone has a bag full of credit cards, the police cannot make an arrest without probable cause that the items are stolen.
That’s where the importance of thorough, itemized theft reports plays in — if an officer can see in the system that one of the items has been reported stolen, they are able to make the arrest.
“Assumptions don’t allow us to make arrests,” Murphy said. “We have to have hard facts.”
Even when the police do make an arrest for these crimes, the suspect is typically not booked into Whatcom County Jail and often does not show up for their court date, Murphy said. Whatcom’s local jail, unlike those in many other U.S. jurisdictions, does not book those who commit misdemeanors such as vehicle prowling and may not even take those who commit a felony, due to COVID-19 and population restrictions, Murphy said.
“You will see people are getting booked for very significant crimes,” she said. “But they are being booked and released.”
Christensen, the Larrabee park ranger, made an arrest a month ago after observing someone break into a car at a trailhead, but he has little hope they will show up for the court date. The trailhead theft problem has continued since the arrest.
As summer fades into fall and college students return to the city, Murphy wants to remind them to remove their backpacks and valuables from their cars, whether they are parked at home, on the street or on campus.
“For the vehicle prowlers and those who make their livings doing this, in summer it’s parks and trailheads,” Murphy said. “In fall, it’s every school you can think of without surveillance.”
