'Puffer' patrol on the prowl for running cars

A cold car is better than no car.

That’s the message Colorado Springs police and other law enforcement agencies in the Pikes Peak region will be conveying in its annual “Puffer” detail during the first week of December, in which detectives will seek out running cars left unattended and hand out warnings.

Last December, officers handed out 311 warning packets during Puffer Week in the early morning hours when it’s easy spotting the exhaust coming from a vehicle, known as a “puffer.”

It is illegal in Colorado Springs to leave a vehicle running because it’s such an irresistible temptation for thieves, although officers don’t ticket anyone. Instead, they leave a warning that notes a thief could have disappeared with the vehicle in the time it took to write the warning.

And it doesn’t matter if the owner can start the car with a remote device instead of a key or has a spare key and keeps the running vehicle locked.

“It doesn’t take but two or three minutes,” said detective Owen Scott. “Even if the car is locked, all it takes is for them to break the window and they’re gone.”

Between Nov. 1, 2008, and March 31, 2009, 33 cars left running and unattended were stolen from driveways, garages or convenience stores or ATMs.

Fifty-three other cars were stolen because the keys were left in the vehicle, “often in those ‘clever’ places like under a mat, above the visor,” or in the center console or glove box., police said.

So far this year, motor vehicle thefts are down about 13 percent overall.