RICHLAND, Wash. – The weather is getting colder and winter is right around the corner. People are seeing frost on their windshields in the morning. The Richland Police Department wants to caution people about leaving their cars unattended while warming up.
According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau report, in 2022 Washington ranks third behind California and Texas for vehicle thefts nationally. Claire Venema, the Communications Specialist for RPD, said it’s not a good idea to leave your car alone while warming up.
“Don’t do it,” said Venema. “Don’t start your car and walk away from it.”
According to Venema, since 2020 car thefts have been on the rise locally.
“Car theft in general has been escalating since 2020,” she said. “Really we’ve seen a steady increase since 2022 in that. Theft related to people stealing cars because they’ve been left running, the numbers are kind of here and there on that.”
She said she’s not sure why there’s an increase, but many of those cars left unattended are stolen.
“Normally, when we do recover cars, they’re not going to come back in the same shape they were taken in,” Venema said.
Bill McDonald is a mechanic and the owner of All City Transmission in Kennewick. He said there isn’t a way to speed up the warming process, but there are ways to get your car ready for winter.
“Keep your thermostats in proper working order, that they’re not open,” McDonald said. “Which will cause it not to warm up as fast. Keep your coolant full because when your coolant drops the first thing that takes the hit is actually your defrosters and your heater. It will blow cold.”
According to Popular Mechanics some other ways to winterize your car are switching to winter tires or all-season tires, checking your tire pressure, putting chains on your tires in extreme cases, installing winter windshield wipers, getting a winter maintenance check, don’t wait to fill up your gas tank, have winter emergency essentials.
Those essentials are:
Cell Phone
Spare Warm Clothes
Warm Blanket
Matches
Flashlights and batteries
Food and Water
First aid kit
Ice Scraper
According to Popular Mechanics, you should also use winterized wiper fluid. McDonald the winter fluid contains alcohol that will melt the ice but it’s also abrasive on your wiper lines,
Venema said if your car comes with automatic start, it should lock while warming up but the best advice she has is, “Don’t leave it running, don’t leave yourself open to having your car stolen,” she said.
According to Venema, thieves can just as easily break a window and get into your car. She said there are many reasons someone would break into your car. Typically, it’s because they see something or are looking for something.
Venema suggests hiding valuables that are in the car, out of sight.
