Suspect arrested in West Reading vehicle break-ins

Someone spotted a man breaking into a vehicle about 12:20 p.m. Jan. 26 in the first block of South Second Avenue in West Reading. Borough police caught the suspect, who officers said also stole items the same day from a vehicle parked in the first block of South Third Avenue. The suspect, a 31-year-old Reading man, was charged with theft, receiving stolen property, theft from a motor vehicle, damaging property, possessing an instrument of crime, attempted theft from a vehicle and disorderly conduct. He was jailed in lieu of $20,000 bail.

Multiple victims report thefts from vehicles in Wyomissing

Between Dec. 5 and Dec. 9, at least five vehicles were broken into in Wyomissing:

• 3:41 p.m. Dec. 5: 1100 block of State Hill Road. Police did not indicate what was stolen.
• 8:33 a.m. Dec. 8: 100 block of Park Road South. The victim told police someone stole the stereo head unit from her vehicle, which had nonworking locks. The woman told officers a similar incident, not reported to police, happened three days earlier to her nephew's vehicle, which also had broken locks.
• 7:35 a.m. Dec. 8: 500 block of Fourth Street. The victim told police someone entered her unlocked vehicle overnight, leaving the trunk and glove box ajar. Nothing was missing.
• 7:42 a.m. Dec. 8: 700 block of North Wyomissing Boulevard. Several vehicles were entered overnight but police did not specify what had been stolen.
• 11:14 p.m. Dec. 9: 1600 block of State Hill Road. A woman told police someone smashed the passenger-side rear window of her vehicle, parked in the Berkshire Mall parking lot, and stole several items.

Vehicle break-ins reported in West Reading

Between Sept. 26 and Sept. 28, West Reading police received three reports of vehicle break-ins:

• 3:48 p.m., Sept. 26: A thief smashed the driver's-side window of a vehicle parked in a lot in the 400 block of Spruce Street and took the GPS device in the car.
• 9:22 p.m., Sept. 26: A vehicle was broken into in the first block of South Third Avenue. Police did not indicate what, if anything, was stolen. 
• 12:19 a.m., Sept. 28: A vehicle was broken into in the 700 block of Wayne Avenue. Police did not indicate what, if anything, was stolen. 

Burglars break into vehicle in Wyomissing garage

Someone smashed the front passenger window of a vehicle parked in a garage of a home in the 1200 block of Girard Avenue sometime between the night of Aug. 14 and the morning of Aug. 15. The victim discovered the crime at 9:30 Aug. 15. Police did not indicate if the garage had been locked or if anything was stolen from the vehicle.

Two vehicles broken into in West Reading

Two people called police in the morning of March 24 to report that someone had broken into their unlocked vehicles. The first was discovered about 6:38 a.m. in the 100 block of South Fifth Avenue, and the second about 7:11 a.m. in the 400 block of Spruce Street.

Rash of vehicle break-ins strike neighborhood in West Reading

Someone broke into a vehicle about 6 p.m. Oct. 10 parked in a driveway behind a home in the 400 block of Sycamore Road in West Reading. The thief or thieves took a GPS device, three compact discs and a power converter.

A block away, in the 300 block, a resident told police his vehicle was also broken into. It was also parked in the driveway behind the man's home. A GPS device and mp3 player were taken.

Police also learned of two other vehicles broken into Oct. 10 in the neighborhood: one in the 300 block of Chestnut Street and one in the 300 block of Playground Drive.

Vehicle break-in costs woman her door

A West Reading woman drove to work in the morning of Sept. 21 and noticed a rattling sound coming from her passenger door. A hinge fell out after she arrived at work and opened the door. She suspects someone tried to break into her vehicle the night before. Police told her the door would have to get fixed before she can drive it again.

Three vehicles broken into in Wyomissing block

A Wyomissing resident went out to her vehicle about 12:19 p.m. April 13 in the 1000 block of Terrace Avenue in Wyomissing and discovered someone had gone through the glove compartment sometime overnight. She told borough police she’d left the vehicle unlocked but nothing appeared to have been stolen.

Several neighbors were not so fortunate. Someone took two portable DVD players from another vehicle parked on the same block. A pink iPod shuffle was among the items taken from a second vehicle, also parked on Terrace Avenue.

Vehicles broken into in West Reading

West Reading has seen a rash of thefts from vehicles recently, including a half-dozen incidents reported between March 4 and March 10. That’s not the end of it. More such break-ins were reported since March 11:

• 7:45 a.m. March 11, 300 block of Buttonwood Street.
• 9:45 a.m. March 11, 300 block of Sycamore Road. Theft happened overnight.
• 10 a.m. March 11, 300 block of Linden Lane.
• 4:52 a.m. March 12, 200 block of Silk Way.
• 11:30 a.m. March 12, 300 block of Summit Street. Theft happened overnight.
• 12:20 a.m. March 13, garage at Reading Hospital.
• 12:30 p.m. March 14, South Fifth Avenue and Spruce Street.
• 8:35 a.m. March 15, 300 block of Playground Drive. Theft happened overnight.
• 9:30 a.m. March 15, 400 block of Buttonwood Street.

Vehicles broken into in Wyomissing parking lot

Security guards from Reading Hospital Medical Center found two vehicles with broken front-passenger-side windows about 3:27 p.m. March 11 in the parking lot of a medical office in the 200 block of Park Road North in Wyomissing. Both had empty GPS brackets on the windshields, but no indication if the GPS devices were missing or simply not in the vehicles to begin with. A cell phone and wallet were reported stolen from one of the vehicles.

Vehicles broken into in West Reading

• About 3:35 p.m. March 5, a vehicle was broken into while parked in the 300 block of South Seventh Avenue in West Reading. 
• A day before, about 7:36 p.m. March 4, a vehicle was also broken into a few blocks away, at Parkside Drive North and Museum Road in the borough.
• On March 6, a woman told police that sometime between 1:30 that afternoon and 8:14 p.m. someone smashed the passenger-side window of her vehicle that was parked in the first block of South Third Avenue. Police did not specify the items stolen.
• On March 7, someone broke a car parked in the driveway of a home in the 400 block of Ann Street.
• Two vehicles were broken into March 7 while parked at Reading Hospital, at South Sixth Avenue and Spruce Street in West Reading.
• On March 10, two vehicles were broken into in the 300 block of South Seventh Avenue. Police received calls of two other break-ins of vehicles about 11:16 p.m. March 10 in the first block of South First Avenue at Chestnut Street.

Car break-ins reported in West Reading

From Nov. 23 to Nov. 25, police investigated seven reports of thefts from vehicles, attempted thefts or damage to vehicles.

Thefts were reported at the following times and locations:

• 9:15 a.m., Nov. 23, 400 block of Oak Terrace

• 8:57 a.m. Nov. 24, 100 block of South Fifth Avenue

• 10:57 p.m. Nov. 24, 100 block of South Second Avenue

• 8:03 a.m. Nov. 25, 200 block of South Fourth Avenue: Garmin GPS device worth about $300 stolen from vehicle; passenger’s side window was smashed.

An attempted theft was reported the morning of Nov. 25 by a man who said someone entered his unlocked vehicle overnight and tried to steal the car stereo. It was parked in the 400 block of Chestnut Street. The theft attempt was unsuccessful, but the would-be thief bent the faceplate and caused other damage to the stereo.

Someone broke the passenger-side mirror on a vehicle parked about 6:15 p.m. Nov. 25 in the 300 block of Pine Street.

Other unspecified vehicles were vandalized about 3:05 p.m. Nov. 25 in the 300 block of Sunset Road.

GPS device stolen from car parked at Berkshire Mall

Sometime between 5 and 5:45 p.m. Sept. 26, someone smashed the driver's-side window of a Kia Spectra that was parked outside the Ruby Tuesday's entrance to the Berkshire Mall in the 1600 block of State Hill Road in Wyomissing. The thief or thieves stole a Tomtom GPS device worth about $150 and caused $300 in damage to the car in the process.

Dog warns of break-in but owner doesn’t listen

A man’s dog started barking about 11:30 p.m. Sept. 10 while he was home in the 1100 block of Lehigh Avenue in Wyomissing. He didn’t bother to see why the dog was acting up, nor why he heard a car door slam. The next day he discovered his wallet had been taken from his unlocked car, which was parked in his driveway.

Change stolen from car in West Reading

A woman called West Reading police in the afternoon of Sept. 6 to report that someone had taken about $10 in change from the inside of her unlocked car overnight while it was parked in the 200 block of South Second Avenue in the borough.

Cars broken into in Wyomissing neighborhood

Police received five calls within a two-hour span on Sept. 3 of vehicles that had been broken into. All of the break-ins occurred on the 1500 or 1600 blocks of Cleveland, Delaware and Garfield avenues in Wyomissing:

• 7:25 a.m.: 1600 block of Delaware Avenue: GPS device, car stereo, spoiler taken from car.

• 8:25 a.m.: 1600 block of Delaware Avenue: car stereo, handheld Nintendo game system taken overnight from unlocked vehicle.

• 8:25 a.m.: 1500 block of Garfield Avenue: Nothing taken from car but someone entered unlocked vehicle overnight and ransacked it.

• 8:47 a.m.: 1500 block of Delaware Avenue: Nothing taken from vehicle but someone got into it overnight.

• 9:22 a.m.: 1500 block of Cleveland Avenue: Someone tried to remove front bumper trim from vehicle.

Purse stolen from vehicle in restaurant parking lot

A woman told Wyomissing police Aug. 23 that sometime between 9 p.m. Aug. 21 and 2 the next morning someone broke into her locked vehicle while she was at The Works, in the 1100 block of Bern Road in the borough. A black purse worth about $60 was stolen; inside it were various credit and debit cards, a social security card and a food stamps debit card worth about $80.

Police find vehicle break-in suspect inside vehicle

West Reading police received a report of a man breaking into a vehicle at about 2:06 a.m. July 21 in the 500 block of Reading Avenue in the borough. When officers arrived they found the suspect still inside the vehicle. They arrested the man, a 29-year-old West Reading resident. He was charged with five counts each of theft and receiving stolen property, along with one count of nighttime prowling, and jailed in lieu of $25,000 bail.

GPS devices stolen from vehicles in Wyomissing

A woman told Wyomissing police July 18 that sometime in the past couple days someone entered her unlocked vehicle in the 1300 block of Garfield Avenue in the borough and stole a Garmin GPS device worth about $150.

In the morning of July 19, someone smashed the driver’s side window of a vehicle parked in the 1100 block of Lehigh Avenue in Wyomissing and stole a Garmin GPS device worth about $200 that had been attached to the windshield of the vehicle.

Electronics, purse stolen from vehicle in parking lot

A car was broken into about 12:46 p.m. July 7 in the parking lot at Home Depot in the 1700 block of Crossing Drive in Wyomissing. The thief or thieves smashed the driver’s side window and took a woman’s purse, GPS device, Blackberry and portable DVD player.