Hotels, neighborhoods, movie theaters and the city of Albany have hired private security guards to protect their customers’ and residents’ property after the number of car break-ins in Albany began rising last summer.

Many believe the thieves are looking for ways to support their drug habits.

Lynda Lentz, owner of Valley Merchant Police Inc. in Albany, said her company has been overwhelmed with requests for patrols. She now gets a minimum of one call a day asking about services, and she is picking up about five new accounts each week.

“We’ve been in business 65 years, and in the past we’ve had one driver out per night and now we have three,” she said.

Dave Wiens, the owner and general manager of Eagle Security Professionals in Tangent, also has received more requests for patrols. Most of those calling for help are in the northeast portions of Albany. He believes that since he’s beefed up his patrols in that area, crooks have moved their operations away to Pacific Boulevard and Santiam Highway.

Eric Groom, the general manager of Comfort Suites, 100 Opal Court N.E. near the Linn County Fair & Expo Center, said his operation and its sister hotel, the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites, hired patrols to guard their parking lots at night.

Groom said his company became concerned that business could fall off after it was reported in the Democrat-Herald in January that in 2005 there were 23 thefts from cars in the parking lots of the two hotels.

“We thought that local businesses bringing in people for meetings would start looking to Salem and Eugene for overnight lodging,” he said. “Because of that, we contracted with an outside security company to have someone on site at different times on staggered evenings. Since we did that, we haven’t had problems, and we’ve even caught a few people who we think were getting ready to commit crimes.”

Groom wants it known that his company is taking care of its customers by making sure they feel safe and secure.

“We don’t want to lose any commercial or family business,” he said.

The city of Albany hired a security firm after three car break-ins were reported between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. March 14 at the exercise center at Swanson Park, on Railroad Street, said Theresa Johnson, the city’s adult recreation and fitness coordinator.

Vandals also have tossed rocks to break windows at the center, and exercise clients have witnessed drug deals.

“I don’t want to give away the times we have security patrols there to prospective burglars, but we have security at the center five days a week,” she said.

The city pays Valley Merchant Police $15.50 an hour for patrols.

Lentz of Valley Merchant Police said security checks range from driving through parking lots and by businesses to security officers getting out of their cars to test doors to make sure they are locked.

Wiens of Eagle Security expects break-ins to increase as the weather improves.

“People do these things at night, and when it’s warmer they will be out even more because everyone wants pocket money to play with during the summer,” he said.

Wiens said most of his customers operate hotels and motels, movie theaters, and RV shows — wherever there are a large number of vehicles parked together, particularly at night.

His firm also patrols some neighborhoods.

People, he said, can prevent vehicle break-ins, by parking their cars in well-lit areas and leaving nothing of value visible in the car.