Area burglaries spiked in 2016

Grand Coulee's police department showed a marked increase in the number of burglaries reported in its jurisdiction (which includes Electric City) in 2016 over what it reported for 2015, according to records released last week.

The report, which included Electric City, showed there were 42 attempted and actual burglaries for 2016, compared to 23 for 2015, an 82-percent hike.

Burglary records for Coulee Dam were not available for 2016, but the number of burglaries in 2015 was shown as six.

Police have stated that the spike in burglaries is thought largely to be drug related, with burglars trying to obtain articles that they can sell to obtain money to feed their habits.

The same general address on Hill Avenue in Grand Coulee showed four burglaries for last year.

A general total of nine burglaries were reported for the Burdin Boulevard and B Street areas.

Twelve of the burglaries reported for 2016 were in Electric City. These were scattered throughout the city.

Twenty-five of the burglaries still are listed as "active," indicating that police are still working on those cases.

Police reported that favorite targets recently have been storage units, where burglars use cutting tools to take out locks and then rummage around the units to see what they can take that might be sellable later.

While most burglaries occur in the evening hours, many are reported in daytime hours.