Festus Police are investigating a rash of vehicle break-ins and thefts in the Bailey Station subdivision and at the Holiday Inn Express. The break-ins occurred early on April 9, Chief Tim Lewis said.
In each of the break-ins, the perpetrators smashed windows to get inside the vehicles, he said.
“At about 4 a.m., we received a call of a suspicious vehicle in the Bailey Station subdivision,” Lewis said. “We found a Nissan Altima with the back-side window broken out. There also was a Crystal City patrol car with a window broken out and a GMC Sierra and a Jeep Liberty with windows broken out.”
He said officers patrolling the area spotted a suspicious vehicle, a Volkswagen Jetta, and tried to pull it over, but the driver sped away. Because of the specific circumstances, the officers were not allowed to chase the Jetta but got the license plate number.
While continuing their investigation, officers found several more vehicles with their windows smashed in the parking lot of Holiday Inn Express, 1802 Gamel Cemetery Road.
“About 5:20 a.m. we were checking a larger area and found four more vehicles with the windows broken out,” Lewis said.
He said the vehicles broken into on that lot included a pickup and three cars, all from out of state.
Lewis said he would only release a brief description of items stolen from the vehicles.
“A lot of personal items were taken,” Lewis said. “We had to notify several of the victims of the break-ins.”
As of April 12, none of the stolen items had been recovered and no arrests had been made, he said. Anyone with information about the thefts is asked to call the Festus Police at 636-937-5184.