Ten entering auto complaints were reported Dec. 22 in the parking lot of Alcovy Fitness to later have the stolen items found in a neighboring parking lot.

Covington Police Department (CPD) Officer Aimee Oliver was initially called to Alcovy Fitness, located at 10100 Alcovy Road, around 6:50 p.m. She then found 10 cars with busted windows.

Items missing from the vehicles included credit cards, purses, wallets, cell phones, tablets, laptops, GPS devices, guns and other personal belongings.

A few hours later, around 9 p.m., CPD Officer Mark Joyner responded to Pure Talk, located at 11100 Alcovy Road, and located several of the items from the earlier break-ins.

A Pure Talk employee was leaving work and found several items in the parking lot.

“Several credit cards, phones, computers and paperwork were found thrown in the parking lot,” Joyner reported.

The owner of Pure Talk was unable to get security camera footage of the parking lot.

CPD Captain Ken Malcom said there have been no leads in the case as of Wednesday morning. He hopes a lead will come off the two guns that were stolen.

He said it has been the CPD’s experience that the people involved in these incidents are not typically local residents.

“Periodically, criminals will focus on businesses off the interstate so they can dip off the interstate and get right back on,” he said. “With fitness centers, people sometimes leave their belongings in the car – they don’t want to take in valuable items – and criminal understand that.”

Malcom encourages residents to keep their valuables and personal belongings in a secure location where thieves can not only not see the items, but also not get to them.

“This kind of thing is a problem in every community, no one’s immune to it,” he said.