FARMINGTON – Police warned residents to lock their cars Monday after 25 unlocked vehicles were ransacked.

Cash, ATM cards, cigarettes and a prescription were among items taken, police said Monday afternoon.

The burglaries appear to have started around 11 a.m at Dyeables, police Lt. Jack Peck said. “They entered about eight cars,” Peck said. “At Dyeables, nothing was taken.”

Car owners noticed their cars had been entered when they went outside for a mid-morning break. Although nothing was taken, Peck said, things from inside glove boxes and consoles were strewn about.

While at Dyeables looking for fingerprints in the ransacked cars, police received a call that six more vehicles were entered at the Department of Heath and Human Services office off Farmington Falls Road. When they arrived, they found that cash, a checkbook, an ATM card, and a prescription bottle had been stolen.

Police found someone who might have seen the burglars at that office. On her way out to do some errands, Peck said, an unidentified woman found a green van with a passenger on one side parked behind her car. As she walked up to look for the driver, a man approached her and told her it was his van, and he would move it right away.

When the woman returned and heard her coworkers talking about the burglaries, she realized the men might have been the burglars, Peck said.

“She thinks it was either a green Dodge Caravan or a Ford Windstar,” Peck said, “It was nondescript – there was nothing that made it stick out.”

The driver, too, was nondescript, Peck said. “Mid-30s, middle height, middle weight. She thought he was clean-shaven. Dark hair.”

Next came a call from Franklin Memorial Hospital, Peck said. Eight to 10 cars there were ransacked, and a pack of cigarettes was taken, he said. “Cell phones were passed over. Change was passed over,” he added.

At around 1:30 p.m., police got their last call. Four cars were entered at Pine Tree Family Practice on Franklin Avenue. “Same thing,” Peck said. “Nothing was taken.”

Police have fingerprinted the cars, and continue to investigate, Peck said.

“Some of these vehicles had their keys in the ignition,” he said. “Although it’s a safe community, (people) should lock up vehicles so stuff like this doesn’t happen.”

He asked that anyone who saw anything unusual Monday call police at 778-6311.