Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
With summer arriving and the return of seasonal cabin dwellers, the county is seeing an increase in burglary reports, though it’s hard to say when those break-ins occurred.
A number of summer visitors over the past month or two have reported they’ve found their cabins or garages had been broken into during their absence.
Shawano County Sheriff Adam Bieber said the department logged seven burglaries reported in April through mid-May.
“This is nothing abnormal,” Bieber said, and doesn’t necessarily indicate a spike in burglaries.
“Many land owners and cabin owners are coming up from the southern part of Wisconsin to find their garage or cabin broken into,” he said.
The reports do underline, however, what authorities have been espousing for some time, which is that homeowners and property owners should be vigilant and take additional precautions to make sure their properties are secure.
“Many of these complainants do not have motion lights and do not have cameras,” Bieber said, two steps that could help prevent burglaries and identify the culprits when such crimes take place.
Most of the crimes have been reported around Shawano Lake, in the town of Wescott and the northwest corner of the county.