Police are taking action to tackle a sudden surge in thefts from cars on their patch.
In the past month, officers at Leicester's Keyham Lane police station have received 20 reports of thefts from vehicles, chiefly in the Belgrave area.
Officers staged an awareness event for motorists in the car park of the Sainsbury's supermarket car park in Belgrave last Thursday.
Pc Laura Nutt, of the Belgrave safer neighbourhood team, said: "Our aim was to educate and remind vehicle owners not to leave items on display in their vehicles such as sat navs and mobile phones, particularly since we have recently had an increase in this type of crime.
"We spoke to a lot of people and gave them advice on how to keep their vehicles safe."
During the event officers gave out 250 packs to motorists, containing a vehicle crime prevention leaflet, air freshener, ice scraper and cloth to remove the sucker marks left behind by a satellite navigation units.
Officers are urging people to remove all valuables such as handbags, jackets, laptop computers and mobile or to store them out of sight.
Inspector Ed McBryde-Wilding, commander of Keyham Lane police station, said the owners of a number of the vehicles targeted in the past month were attractive to thieves because valuables were left inside them in plain view.
He said: "Sadly, pretty much every time we get these reports of thefts from vehicles it turns out that property has been left on display."
