A busy Memorial Day for BART car break-in burglaries

More than a dozen burglaries and acts of vandalism were reported in a 24-hour period at BART stations across the Bay Area on Memorial Day.

A BART watch commander said that nine cars were burglarized in Millbrae on Monday, one car was burglarized in Colma and another car was burglarized at the El Cerrito Del Norte station. Also at the Del Norte station, one car was also stolen. 

BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said that she is well aware that break ins occur, and that the agency is "not immune" to crime. However, she said, auto theft is down 20 percent so far this year compared to the same period of time last year. And the number is on a downward trend. In 2014, there were 844 auto burglaries, in 2015, there were 774 auto burglaries and last year, there were 770 auto burglaries, BART data shows.

In terms of car thefts, there were 525 in 2014 and 477 last year, BART data shows.

Still, Trost said BART has added more patrols to parking lots and officers use the watch tower when they notice a spike in crime, which they used last week at the Coliseum station in Oakland.