Why Tri-Cities Vehicle Thefts Are On The Rise This Winter

Don't leave your vehicle running unattended.

It's an invitation for for car thieves to get their desire problem-free.

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The Benton County Sheriff's Office is reporting an increase in vehicle thefts this winter season. In just 10 days 4 vehicle thefts were reported to the department.

People tend to want to get into a warm vehicle, so they leave it running while parked at a convenience store. They hope to return to their warm vehicle. Instead, it's been stolen. It's that quick.

Police remind you to lock your car doors. Don't leave your keys in your vehicle. Make sure your windows are all the way up.

And, NEVER leave anything valuable. Either place the items in the trunk, or take them inside with you.

If you find anything missing from your vehicle or worse yet, your vehicle was stolen, call 9-1-1.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

Gallery Credit: Sophia Crisafulli

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Gallery Credit: Kery Wiginton