In past Christmases over $287 billion dollars have been spent during the holiday season, but with the unemployment rate projected at over nine percent, many people will commit crimes to make up for their lack of money as they try to join in the holiday spirit.

“During an economic time like right now, there are a lot of people having a difficult time making ends meet. And then you also add to the fact that they want to provide gifts,” School Resource Officer John Zlatic said. “The crimes that we have in this school are basically crimes of opportunity where people leave their property out and typically at Clayton High School it is good property.”

Although it seems that Clayton High School has an uptick in crime during the holiday season, Officer Zlatic and the Chief of Police of Clayton Mr. Byrne assure citizens that people just need to be careful.

“The most prevalent crime we are experiencing is thefts from automobiles. The thieves break into cars that appear to have something of value. Examples of these would be Garmin’s on the dashboard or packages left in the vehicles in plain view,” Byrne said.

So the question you may be asking yourself is what is the process to evade crime in Clayton? The answer: be smart.

“The best deterrent for these types of thefts is not to leave anything of value visible in the interior of the car and of course lock the vehicle as well,” Byrne said.

Additionally, as the holidays get closer the Clayton police department increases the number of officers parked or roaming the areas of downtown Clayton, or just parked in parking lots waiting for possible thefts to occur.

Downtown Clayton and other specks of commercial property do not add up to much when considering the vast amount of commercial property elsewhere in St. Louis.

“We don’t experience a significant increase in crime during the holidays simply because we don’t have a large retail area such as the Galleria,” Byrne said.

When it comes to protecting personal property this holiday season remember to use common sense.

(Photo by: Andrea Stiffelman)