Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey is warning drivers to protect their GPS devices after a nearly 500 percent theft increase in a year.

Nassau police say 44 devices were stolen in Jan. of 2007 while 211 were reported stolen last month. Police in the Bethpage-Levittown area say more than a dozen were stolen over the weekend from a train station and from shopping center parking lots. The police department is giving letters to residents telling them how to protect their property.

Police say many GPS devices are stolen overnight in driveways or in front of homes, but they?re also being stolen from commercial lots. They say police constantly canvass such areas looking for signs of the expensive devices, even if the drivers have removed them.

Police are telling drivers to remove their GPS devices from their vehicles and to also wipe off the suction cup marks the devices leave behind. They say between replacing a car window and the device itself, being careless could be costly.

AP wire reports contributed to this article.

Related Information: