Grants police seek public’s help

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — A rash of burglaries and car thefts in the past few weeks has resulted in Grants police seeking the public’s help in solving these crimes.

Grants Police Detective Sgt. James Spidle asks the public to call CrimeStoppers at (505) 287-8400 or him at the police department at (505) 287-2984. All callers to CrimeStoppers or to Spidle at the police department will remain confidential.

Since early June there has been about seven commercial burglaries. Since the middle of July, there have been about 10 auto thefts in Grants.

The commercial burglaries all have the same method: The burglar(s) kick in the front or a side door or a window, go to the cash register, take all the money and leave, not bothering to take anything else, Spidle said.

Because of this, area businesses are asked to take extra precautions at the close of their business day.

All cash should be removed from the most obvious places and video surveillance or audio alarms should be activated if possible, Spidle said.

Interior and exterior lights should be left on to help police when responding to an alarm, and checking the security of the building.

Auto thefts
All of the auto thefts are similar in nature.

“Some of these thefts may be because the thief is using the vehicle in a drug transaction so they do not have to use their own vehicle,” Spidle said.

Some of the 10 autos that have been stolen have been recovered in the Albuquerque area, he said.