Thief Breaks Into SUV, Steals Two Cases of 30-Roll Toilet Paper

Two cases of 30-roll toilet paper were among the personal items stolen by a thief who broke into a vehicle in the state of Oregon last weekend, local police say.

The Eugene Police Department confirmed in a release it recently received an online report stating the rear window of an SUV had been "completely shattered" during a theft in the early hours of Saturday last weekend—with business and personal items, including the toilet rolls, left missing.

The robbery incident is believed to have occurred sometime between midnight at 5:45 a.m., on the 3700 block of West 11th Avenue, officials said.

Police wrote: "Anytime vehicles are left unattended for extended periods of time, local thieves view it as a favorable opportunity. It is not enough to lock the vehicle before leaving." The suspect has not been identified.

An outbreak of novel coronavirus has fueled a rise in toilet paper purchasing in recent weeks, with some supermarket store shelves across the world left bare as customers braced for hypothetical shortages of home products.

Earlier this month, a fight that broke out in a shop over toilet paper in Australia was caught on camera. "It isn't the Thunderdome, it isn't Mad Max, we don't need to do that," New South Wales police acting-inspector Andrew New said at the time.

It comes as some governments are enforcing lockdowns on citizens in attempts to limit the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by a virus named SARS-CoV-2. It has infected more than 198,000 people across the world and caused close to 8,000 deaths at the time of writing.

"Theft from a vehicle is one of the most common crimes in our area," the Eugene Police Department noted in its Facebook post about the early-morning loo roll theft.

"In almost all cases victims had left property visible in the vehicle," officials added. "If you want to keep someone from breaking into your vehicle, don't leave anything in your vehicle. If you must leave something in your vehicle, keep it out of sight from anyone who might be looking in."

On March 14, a separate law enforcement agency in Oregon made headlines after urging citizens against reporting any future toilet paper shortages to the emergency services.

"It's hard to believe that we even have to post this. Do not call 9-1-1 just because you ran out of toilet paper. You will survive without our assistance," the Newport Oregon Police Department stated.
In an update two days later, officials explained they had not actually received any calls from the public about shortages, but instead made the social media post as a proactive measure.

"We have not received numerous 911 calls about people's lack of TP [toilet paper]," police wrote. "Our recent post did not state we had received any such calls.

"It does state we do not want people to call 911 for their TP shortage. This is being proactive and preventative, because we know from experience over the years that people tend to call 911 with the weirdest requests. It's just a matter of time before the TP shortage was one of those weird calls."