Suspects have broken into eight cars and stolen several items in the past month at Lake Johnson, according to the Raleigh Police Department’s Public Information Officer Jim Sughrue.

Lake Johnson Supervisor Richard Costello could not be reached for comment after multiple attempts.

Sughrue said police arrested Jermaine Sanders, 23, and Anthony Johnson, Jr., 23, who were charged on a variety of counts.

Police charged the two men with eight counts of breaking-and-entering motor vehicles, eight counts of larceny, four counts of financial credit card theft and three counts of fraud, Sughrue said.

He said police conducted surveillance work over the past few weeks in the area. The two men had been identified as potential suspects, and police stopped them as they were leaving the Lake Johnson parking lot, according to Sughrue.

“The two men had stolen a variety of things, including wallets and billfolds,” Sughrue said. “They were breaking windows where they could look in for purses, billfolds, and wallets.”

Sughrue said the men used the credit cards from the wallets at various businesses in the area.

“They try to immediately use the credit cards before the victim finds out the cards were stolen and cancels them,” he said.

The police department will conduct further investigation over the next several weeks, and additional charges may be brought upon the suspects, Sughrue said.

“Most commonly, the crimes occur in one of two ways: either people are going through an area in parking lots at apartment complexes, parks or other places popular for that because of the number of vehicles there, and [larcenists] look for unlocked doors,” he said.

Larceny in car vehicles is the most common crime in Raleigh, Sughrue said.

In recent years, he said it has become a bigger problem as people have become more careless about locking their vehicles and hiding their valuable possessions.

The thieves, according to Sughrue, look for unlocked vehicles and items such as purses, cell phones, mp3 players, laptops and even pocket change in plain sight.

“We’ve had cars broken into for pocket change that could be seen in a cup holder,” he said.

Larceny in car vehicles and breaking and entering are very preventable crimes, Sughrue said.

According to Sughure, people can save themselves a lot of time and trouble by taking simple measures, because having to file a police report, pay for damages to the car and file insurance claims take a lot of unnecessary effort.

“The slogan we always tell people is ‘lock, take and hide,'” Sughrue said. “Lock your car, take your keys and hide your belongings.”