But the news did not come as a surprise to Detective Inspector Winston Woodward, who said the thefts are usually on unlocked cars and police have been trying to educate the community about the issue for a long time.

There were 539 Albury incidents of theft from cars in the 12 months to March 2019.

Even though this was down on the number of 621 the year before, it is still a significant problem for police.

"It's something that I'm well-aware of and we are conscious about," Inspector Woodward said.

"We are tasking the police the best we can to deal with the crime, putting strategies in place to deal with the crime.

"The bottom line is they are opportunistic - it only takes one of two young blokes, young women or members of the community to get out at 3 o'clock in the morning and they could commit 10 to 15 steal from motor vehicle offences in one night."

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But he said the problem was far from an epidemic, cars thefts were being committed by people known to police - and they were being watched.

"It is a particular handful of people, a lot of which we are aware of," he said.

"It's the fact there's a particular group of people in our community unfortunately that will thieve off you at any opportunity they get."

Police once again pleaded with people to lock their cars, because criminals are usually looking for an easy target.

"They don't want to smash the window ... I cannot put out there enough the significance of locking your cars and locking your homes," Inspector Woodward said.

"I think our message is getting across, but it's just not quite there."

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