If you are planning a trip to Regina in the next little while, you should be aware that the city has seen an increase in car thefts. 

"The reason is people leave their keys in the car or they leave their vehicles unlocked." Sgt. Evan Handley with the Estevan Police Service explained. "If your vehicle is unlocked, it's easy for thieves to get in and start your vehicle even with the electronics in the vehicles, people can still steal vehicles."

"Unfortunately, Regina has a lot of older vehicles as well and those older vehicles are easier to break into and easy to steal."

"Make sure you take all your belongings of value out of the vehicle, make sure you take your keys with you and lock your vehicle."

"Another thing I would say is to write down your licence plate number somewhere. I know myself, I have a tough time remembering my license plate number and I'm in policing. Make sure you write that down that way if something does happen, you can report everything to the police as soon as possible."

Handley added that Estevan isn't seeing the same numbers as Regina but earlier in the year, there were quite a few vehicle thefts. 

He also added that catalytic converters are also a target for many thieves. 

"Just north of us here, the RCMP are dealing with them where a bunch of new ones were cut off vehicles. The material in them is very valuable and they are easy to sell so people can easily remove them from your vehicle and sell them and make good money."

To protect yourself, he suggested parking in a well-lit area and move your vehicle so it doesn't look it has been abandoned and make note of any suspicious activity in the area.

"Call that kind of stuff in if you see people out there that shouldn't be there or you don't know why they're there or you don't know what they're doing, feel free to call us or call the local RCMP. We'll come by, we'll look into it. It might be nothing but we would rather come out and have a chat with somebody and make sure everyone goes home at the end of the day with their vehicles."