The urge to enjoy Kirkland’s outdoors in the summer months increasingly seems to draw out a certain type of thief, recent police reports show.

So far for 2008, nearly 500 vehicle prowls have been reported and the rate has steadily increased over the summer months. Vehicle prowls, or “car break-ins” are the theft of property from inside a car or truck. Kirkland Police crime analyst Kristina Shull said 58 vehicle prowls were reported in July and 66 in August.

The summer months usually see higher numbers of crime-of-opportunity incidents, such as vehicle prowls — but not always.

In January, 74 car prowl incidents were reported — the highest single month total in years.

“They tend to hit multiple cars at once,” she said. “The crime is so quick, it really just takes seconds.”

She advised residents who park their cars outside a secured garage to remove valuables left in plain sight. Items that are easily removable, such as cell phones, GPS modules, wallets and purses should be taken out of the vehicle.

The transient nature of the crime seldom leaves police in a position to make arrests.

“The majority (of vehicle prowl) is smash-and-grab,” she said.

During the latest spike in vehicle prowls, Highlands neighborhood association member Karen Story raised the alarm in her area Aug. 20 when several of her neighbors reported many car

prowls in the area. She alerted residents in an e-mail to discarded valuables on a neighborhood sidewalk: Three sets of keys, a sunglass case, over-the-counter medication and a few other items that were left behind by the unknown suspect.

According to the Kirkland Police Department blotter, 31 reports of car prowls were recorded during the week of Aug. 20.

Highlands resident Kurt Ahrensfeld’s yellow Honda Civic fell prey to one of three car break-ins along Northeast 91st Street. The car’s back window was smashed and a black bag containing engineering notes he needed for a morning’s meeting was stolen from inside.

“It’s more annoying than anything else, I guess,” he said. “It seems we go for a long period of time without anything happening and then you get a rash of them.”

Similar to a laptop computer bag in size, the bag was visible from the outside and was reportedly stolen in the late hours of the evening or early morning.

Investigating the latest round of criminal activity, Shull and Lt. Nick Seibert are trying to develop several leads and suspects, but presently do not have anyone in custody. But indications point to the possibility of a local resident.

“When you have a number of residences in a local area getting hit, that indicates it’s a person that knows the area very well,” Seibert said.