Entering the impound lot and taking a closer look, Gramentz found seven impound vehicles had smashed windows. Stereo/radio units were stolen from six of the vehicles sometime within the last 48 hours, he said.

“They (thieves) must have climbed the fence (around the impound lot),” Gramentz said. “We found a socket set in the impound lot.”

Thieves removed stereos by pulling them out of the vehicle dashboards, which sometimes made gaping holes in vehicle interiors.

Gramentz said the estimated value of the stolen stereos was at least $1,500. But the loss to taxpayers could be much more than that.

Staff photo by Fritz Busch  Thieves smashed windows and removed large parts of vehicle dashboards as they ripped the radio/stereos from the cars. at the police impound lot. Police seek more information on the thefts.

“When impound vehicles are broken into by smashing windows, the value of the vehicle falls about in half, which could mean hundreds of dollars for some vehicles,” Gramentz said.

In addition, the thefts hit the wallets of all local taxpayers, Gramentz said.

“The impound cars are sold and the money received goes back into the police department budget,” Gramentz said. “Most of the vehicles are owned by people with pending court cases. Other vehicles were abandoned or forfeited by people with driving under the influence (DUI) and drug convictions.”

Gramentz said police have not received as many stolen vehicle stereo reports recently as they did a number of years ago.

A New Ulm Police Department Facebook post on Thursday morning read: “If anyone knows of someone who all of a sudden has a bunch of car radios they are trying to sell, please let us know. I’m pretty sure we would like to meet them.”

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/ NewUlmPoliceDepartment/

fbusch@nujournal.com