“I want to tell people to close their garage doors.”

It’s an oft-repeated warning in Preston Hollow, and one that David Trigiani says he usually heeds. But ever since his garage was burglarized, he has become more vigilant about that simple safety measure and is yelling the warning from the rooftops.

What’s worse, his wife’s car was in the garage – and it was unlocked. When he and his wife came home and began assessing their losses, the list of stolen items just seemed to become longer and longer. The thieves made off with three purses valued at $320. Inside one of the purses was an expensive leather wallet worth $110, a Mont Blanc pen estimated at $180, a pair of Oakley sunglasses and, of course, credit cards.

“They had already used some of them by the time we called to cancel them.”

The biggest item was a new digital camera, bringing the total loss to more than $2,000.

Trigiani says he reads his neighborhood Crimewatch e-mail regularly and has noticed a lot of activity recently. One of the most frequent entries on the e-mail is another crime of opportunity in which deliveries left on front porches are stolen. He says within days of the burglary of his garage, a group of teens broke into a house on his street and stole whatever cash they could find.

“I saw the police officers down the street. Two [teens] were arrested,” he says.

The DPD officer who responded to Trigiani’s call had some advice that went beyond the warning above: “He told us not to keep anything of value in the garage.”

Obviously, power tools, lawn equipment and bikes have value, and most people don’t have anywhere else to store those items. Deputy Chief David Elliston says the officer was probably referring to the type of property left inside the vehicle.

“Wallets, cash, credit cards and other types of valuable property should not be left inside an open garage, or inside a car at any time. If a person must leave property in a car for a short period of time for some reason, it should be locked inside the trunk and out of view.”

As for tools and bikes and other items typically stored in garages, Lt. David Payne says residents might consider locking multiple items together with a chain and a padlock.

“They’re going to get it if they want, but if a person chains it to something it’s harder to steal it. Most people aren’t willing to go that extra yard. The easiest solution is to keep your garage door closed.”

Both Elliston and Payne say that one of the methods of theft used by criminals is to drive alleys looking for open garages. Similarly, Elliston says there are more opportunities for thefts of deliveries during the holiday season when people are likely to receive gifts from friends and family or order merchandise by mail. However, in December there was only one such theft reported to police from that area. Payne says that could be because, in some cases, smaller thefts are never reported to police.

Police investigators have not been able to tie multiple thefts or burglaries in the area to any one individual at this time. Elliston says the two burglars arrested down the street from Trigiani have not been linked to any other burglaries in the area.