Many of us have heeded police officers’ advice to make our vehicles less attractive to thieves.

Store your valuables out of sight or take them out of the car if you can. Do not leave purses or briefcases where potential thieves can see them.

Apparently, this may not be enough anymore.

The Eastside has been hit with a series of motor vehicle prowl and burglary incidents during the past few weeks.

Police believe several recent cases involving similar scenarios may indicate thieves are using a new strategy to burglarize homes.

Here’s what’s happening: A person goes out to see a movie or eat at a restaurant and parks their car. A thief prowls their car and takes the person’s vehicle registration. Police believe the registration information is used to lead thieves to the unoccupied homes.

The Kirkland Police Department has seen at least two of these incidents in the past few weeks, says Sgt. Rob Saloum.

“There has definitely been an increase (in these cases) recently,” he said.

In one case, someone’s car was prowled while parked in Kirkland and then the thief burglarized their Woodinville home. Another victim’s car was prowled while parked in Woodinville, and then the thief burglarized their Kirkland home while it was unoccupied, said Saloum.

Redmond also recently had a string of these incidents. In one of the cases, the victim was a Medina resident but their car was broken into while in Redmond.

In another case, a vehicle was broken into in the parking lot of the Regal Bella Bottega movie theater in Redmond and then the victim’s home in unincorporated King County just outside of Redmond was burglarized.

In a third incident, A Redmond resident’s car was prowled while in the parking lot of a Woodinville movie theater. While the victim’s home was not burglarized, Redmond police say they received a report of suspicious circumstances in that neighborhood, which may have been tied to the vehicle prowl.

Redmond police said they are aware of more incidents in at least nine neighboring jurisdictions, including Bellevue, Issaquah and Bothell.

Protect yourself.

The best thing you can do is keep your vehicle registration information on your person and not in your vehicle, said Saloum. Go through all the contents of your car and make sure there is nothing with your home address or other identifying information on it.

Also, if you are a victim of a vehicle prowl, let police know if your registration information is missing so that they may make sure your home is safe.

That’s not a lot to do to protect yourself from becoming a victim – twice.