Guelph Neighbourhood Watch performs a Lock It or Lose It program, usually at the Stone Road Mall during the first shopping weekend of December.

The goal of the program is to raise awareness in the community to lock your vehicles and valuables in them to deter thieves who prey on unsuspecting shoppers during this busy time of year when we drop our guard.

Volunteers examine vehicles in the parking lot looking for ones that are unlocked, have valuables in plain view or have keys in them!

A small flyer is placed on every vehicle indicating what safety issues, if any,  were observed when it was examined.

Below are the statistics from the last programs we have run:

2006 Friday December 1st and Saturday December 2nd:

# of Vehicles Examined:                                           1845

# Vehicles unlocked:                                                      45   2.44%

# Vehicles with keys in view:                                          5   0.28%

# Vehicles with windows open:                                     6   0.33%

# Vehicles with valuables in plain view:                  532   28.8%

# Vehicles with no problems:                                    1256  68.1%

 

2005 Friday December 16th and Saturday December 17th:

# of Vehicles Examined:                                           2019

# Vehicles unlocked:                                                      39   1.93%

# Vehicles with keys in view:                                          5   0.24%

# Vehicles with windows open:                                     2   0.09%

# Vehicles with valuables in plain view:                  588   27.6%

# Vehicles with no problems:                                    1115  70.0%

 

2004 Friday December 17th and Saturday December 18th:

# of Vehicles Examined:                                           2771

# Vehicles unlocked:                                                    118   4.3%

# Vehicles with keys in view:                                         4    0.1%

# Vehicles with windows open:                                    12  0.4%

# Vehicles with valuables in plain view:                  731   26.4%

# Vehicles with no problems:                                    1906  68.8% 

 

2003 Friday November 28th and Saturday November 29th:

# of Vehicles Examined:                                            1852

# Vehicles unlocked:                                                    128   6.9%

# Vehicles with keys in view:                                          0   0%

# Vehicles with windows open:                                     1   0.1%

# Vehicles with valuables in plain view:                  469   25.3%

# Vehicles with no problems:                                    1256  68.1%