You already know you're supposed to take your valuables with you when you park your car in Seattle but if you need a gentle reminder, the latest statistics released by the Seattle Police department should do the fix.
There have been 2,950 reported car thefts so far in 2016, up 22 percent from the same time period last year.
They included a map with the 12 most common theft spots and aside from Northgate Mall almost all of them seem centralized on Downtown and it's surrounding neighborhoods. North Seattle along or near Aurora Avenue doesn't fare too well either.
Parking garages appear to be one place where thefts are on the rise.
"Bad guys aren't dumb about how they do this," Michaud said. "They like to go into places where they know they're not being watched as they do their dirty deeds. And they know that people come into work, and they're going to leave their car for a few hours. That's when criminals know they have time to get their job done, which is to break into your car and steal your stuff."
Perhaps bucking trends and trying to catch people off-guard, many of the recent thefts have been happening between 7:00 a.m. and Noon instead of the middle of the night.
· Police Report Seattle Car Prowls Up 22 Percent [KUOW]