05/06/2008: Danvers is in the midst of a pattern of dashboard GPS receiver thefts, affecting hotel, restaurant, and business parking lots on Route 1, along Route 114, and at the Liberty Tree Mall. Thieves smash the windows of cars parked for long periods, steal GPS receivers of all varieties from the victims' dashboards, and flee. A secondary target is laptop computers. There have been 43 incidents in the pattern since the beginning of the year.

Most of the thefts have targeted restaurants and businesses in the late afternoon and early evening, and hotels overnight. In the last week, the thefts have also crept into the daytime, with several thefts between noon and 3:00 p.m.

In a general sense, however, this pattern is part of a growing problem all over eastern Massachusetts, and no place and time is really "safe." If you are the owner of a GPS device, please take care to remove or conceal it when parking your car. Leaving it in plain view is like leaving $500 cash sitting on your dashboard.