Starkville area mechanics and auto repair shop owners said they have had it. In the past year, these businesses have been the hot spot for multiple break-ins and thefts. To make sure the city does something to make the number of repair shop burglaries decrease, business owners will present a petition at tonight’s Board of Aldermen meeting demanding attention to their crisis.
City Alignment, Merritt Reed Body Shop and William Wells Tire & Auto Repair are just a few of the shops that have experienced these burglaries. Shop owners said the burglars break into their shops late at night and steal store-bought sound systems in their customer’s cars parked inside and outside of the garage. Owners said their main concern, other than keeping happy customers, is being responsible for replacing the lost property as well as fixing any part of the vehicle that is damaged in the theft process, in addition to the repair that brought the vehicle to the shop.
“They steal a $100 radio, and we have to fix on average $500 worth of damage to the cars,” City Alignment manager Donnie Hammett said. “And, the rising number of break-ins meant our insurance dropped us last March when we had three (burglaries) in one month. We used to pay $2,000; now we pay $3,800-almost double for our new insurance.”
William Wells, owner of William Wells Tire & Auto Repair, said his insurance carrier has already warned him of reporting any more thefts to the company. He said the carrier told him that one more report would cost him his coverage.
“Since December, I’ve paid $8,800 out of my pocket to fix vehicles that were broken into to avoid being dropped from my insurance,” Wells said. “I have to keep my insurance. If an accident happened, and I didn’t have it, they (the person suing) would own me and my shop.”
City Alignment employee Mark Arick said he is worried that the burglaries will cost him an even greater price.
“I’m concerned for my job,” Arick said. “My boss can’t pay the damages all the time and keep a full staff-no one has that kind of money.”
Bobby Winston, owner of Merrit Reed Body Shop, said he and his fellow repair shop owners are doing everything to keep their business sites burglary-free, but he said that their efforts are not fool-proof.
“They bent a steel (garage) door in half to get into my shop,” Winston said. “I guess the police have done all they can. It’s just aggravating.”
“We (shop owners and law enforcement) need to do something about this problem,” Wells said. “This crime spree is putting me in a financial bind and threatining my business.”
Wells said that he is doing everything he can to minimize his monthly average thefts by even notifying law enforcement officials when he has more than the normal numbers of vehicles being stored on his property overnight.
“We called the Sheriff’s Department about three weeks ago when we had a lot of cars one night and asked them to pay special attention to our lot,” Wells said. “But, that didn’t do any good. We got hit, and one vehicle alone had more than $2,300 worth of damage that I had to pay out of pocket. That shows me they aren’t doing their best in patrolling and investigating.”
Wells said that the money he must pay out of pocket is one of the reasons he is financially distraught.
“For every $100 we lose, we have to make an additional $300 just to break even,” Wells said. “Last year alone, I lost about $16,000 out of pocket in repairing these vehicles. Now, I’m paying almost $4,000 to get some camera and security equipment.”
Hammett’s son, Shannon Hammett, is using his Mississippi State University degree in criminal justice to help increase security at the shop, but Shannon Hammett said his efforts are not doing much good.
“We have video surveillance of some of the break-ins but no arrests,” Shannon Hammett said.
Although these business workers and owners said they feel there is a crime spree, Starkville Police Chief David Lindley said that crime in Starkville is not rising.
“We analyze crime patterns daily and at the beginning of every shift,” Lindley said. “Then we have what we call roll call when the shift supervisor, who is a sergeant, briefs the officers before they begin their patrol.”
Lindley said that the crime in Starkville is consistent, not rising. He also said that he and his 42 men are doing everything they can to protect Starkville.
“We get on average 1,300 calls for service per month,” Lindley said. “That doesn’t include traffic patrol.We try to be both proactive in addition to being reactive, while maintaining public safety to the best of our ability.”
Owners said that police may be doing everything within their means, but they said the police are not telling them anything,
“They’ve told me nothing,” Winston said. “We don’t even know what their leads are or anything.”
“It really makes us mad,” Shannon Hammett said. “We have to pay a deductible on these thefts, and no one seems to do anything about it.”
Auto repair shop business owners said other than better police patrol, a curfew may help decrease the break-ins.
Mayor Mack Rutledge said Starkville’s Board of Aldermen reviewed a curfew several years ago, but it brought so much dissent that it was never passed.
“I would certainly want to entertain the idea (of looking into a curfew),” Rutledge said. “It (the burglaries) is an important matter that we (he and the Board of Aldermen) would like to hear.”
Shannon Hammett said he does not believe the recent burglaries top the Mayor and Board of Aldermen’s list of priorities.
“They (Board of Aldermen) are more worried about a sign law than they are about us,” Shannon Hammett said. “The Board of Aldermen are not supporting the police. They (Board of Aldermen) look at the police like they are second rate-they need to realize that the police are our backbone. The police are overwhelmed and understaffed.”
Rutledge said the business owners did not contact his office Friday in time to put their petition on the agenda for the Board of Aldermen meeting. Rutledge also said that without the petition being on the agenda, the owners will be allowed three minutes during the citizen-involvement section of the meeting.
“That’s our plan,” Shannon Hammett said. “We plan to use our three minutes.”
Hammett said he and all the men behind the signatures on their petition each plan to take advantage of the three minutes they are each allotted as citizens. He said their petition is not to put blame on any person or organization, but the petition is to draw attention to the problem and bring a solution.
“Whatever happens, we need to find a way to stop this. It is going to put us all in a financial problem,” Wells said. “I am even willing to pay to ensure better patrolling, and I’m sure that others are too.”
Wells and Winston said they were not aware of any prosecutions in any of their cases. Shannon Hammett said that of the very few arrests made in the thefts at his shop, minors were the culprits and their sentences were “merely slaps on their wrists.

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