According to Maplewood Police reports, there have been a number of GPS (Global Positioning Units) stolen from cars parked in the town. As we reported last week, a GPS unit was stolen from an unlocked car parked on Elberta Road in late January.

Evidently, that solitary theft was a prelude to the wave of GPS robberies to come. The Maplewood police report that on Tuesday, Feb. 1, GPS units were stolen from a number of unlocked cars on Oakview Ave. Police believe the robber rode a stolen bicycle through peoples’ yards, as they recovered a bicycle presumably abandoned by the thief when he or she found a better bike to steal.

In a statement after the string of thefts, Maplewood police urged township citizens to secure their vehicles and avoid leaving valuables in vehicles.

Locking your doors is good advice, but does it go far enough? GPS theft has been a rising national trend for the last several years (it’s a crime of convenience with high potential reward, which goes a long way in explaining its 700 percent increase from 2006 and 2008). Several news stories have covered this crime trend, with this Yahoo Tech column outlining an effective-seeming list of suggestions to make sure you will always know the location of your global positioning system.

Basically, it says lock your doors, and either hide or take your GPS with you and—and this is both important and not immediately obvious—destroy evidence of a GPS unit. In other words: wipe off the inside of your windshield to get rid of the telltale suction cup circle.