CAPE ELIZABETH — The Cape Elizabeth Police Department hopes a planned overnight bicycle patrol will help cut down a high number of motor vehicle burglaries this spring.

Police received 11 reports of such burglaries in the first two weeks of June, including an apparent spree of six on Mitchell Road and two nearby roads the night of June 1.

“It’s bad. We’ve been getting killed all year with these,” Capt. Brent Sinclair said today. “We can’t repeat enough to the public: Lock your cars.”

The majority of the burglaries, Sinclair said, involved unlocked vehicles. The perpetrators took iPods, loose change, purses, wallets and prescription medications, among other items.

“Pretty much all of them are occurring near the South Portland line, on that end of town. Basically they are just going through, grabbing change, iPods, anything that they can pawn quickly.”

Two of the 11 burglaries have been solved, while the rest of them remain under investigation, Sinclair said.

On June 10, police arrested Adam Wedge, 21, of South Portland, for a motor vehicle burglary on Cliff Avenue. Sinclair said another arrest is expected soon for one of two recent burglaries at Fort Williams Park.

Sinclair plans to assign some officers to overnight patrols on mountain bikes, particularly in the Mitchell and Shore road areas.

Anyone with information about the burglaries should contact Cape Elizabeth Police at 767-3323.

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