Theft from vehicles in Vancouver is a `plague' according to the police department, although a recent TV commercial tackles the problem and actually seems to be getting the message through to the public.
Car break-ins in Vancouver were down by 43 per cent in January compared to the same time last year, and city police are crediting the ad campaign.
The TV commercial shows a man throwing a brick through the driver's side window of a vehicle and stealing a woman's purse, followed seconds later by another crook who shatters the passenger window and steals the brick.
Deputy chief Bob Rich says Vancouver still has very high rates of property crime and that the rates would have to drop another 30 per cent just to reach the average of other cities such as Toronto.
Rich says B.C. also has one of the lowest rates in the country for people reporting property crime, so the problem could be even worse that statistics show.
Rich says the police department doesn't believe that the lower rate of theft from vehicles transfers to other property crimes, although he adds that some of Vancouver's more chronic offenders were in jail during the period the theft rate dropped.
