Double car theft forces hard lessons upon Edmonton family

A double car theft in north Edmonton this week has lefta family shaken, if not a little wiser.

When Nikola Cvijovic entered the garage adjoining his home Wednesday morning, he noticed his computer missing.

When he opened the garage door, he saw that two of his three cars were gonefrom the driveway.

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As he began tofigureout how the thieves did it, he realized theymust have entered his home to get the set of keys for one of thecars.

"It's not a pleasant feeling because you feel violated right? They got one of the keys for the car inside the house. What would happen if we were awake at that time? That would be a scary thing."

Cvijovic believes the thieves broke a windowin one of his cars and used the garage door opener to get into the garagewhere they entered the home.

Keys to a third car were also stolen, but Cvijovicsuspectsthe car was abandonedbecausethe thieves couldn't operate a manual transmission.

Sgt. Steve Sharpe said motorists could learn a lot from the crime.

Car thieves are opportunists, he said.Theymay break into a vehicle to steal valuables, but find keys or a garage door opener.

"The key here is to remove those items and start to think - as a motorist - what I can do and what steps I can take to prevent this crime from happening to me.

"In some circumstances what can happen is things can unfortunately just play out in favour of the criminal."

Sharpe says thieves often work in teams of two or three anduse stolen cars simply to get somewhere or for another crime and then abandon them.

The theft has beenaheadache for Cvijovicas he needed to take a few days off work to get all the locks in his home changed, as well as all the passwords on his computer, and dealing with his insurance company.

But perhaps the most valuable thing the thieves made off with is his family's sense of security.

"It's a first initial shock and, I don't know, the fear comes in after," he said."The important thing is the family is ok, everyone is alive and healthy, and you can replace things. But it's the feeling of insecurity that stays behind.

"The first night my wife even locked the room because the scary thing is, they were inside the house.

"I'll pay attention from now on, make sure everything is locked up, hide the keys inside the house."