GALICE Ñ It’s a pretty spot, tucked away along a bend in the river, where whitewater rafters launch their vessels and backpackers leave for treks down the Rogue River Trail.

Afterhours, it’s a virtually unpatrolled smorgasbord for thieves, who smash car windows and steal personal items or auto parts, including car batteries.

On a weekend day, the area around the Grave Creek boat ramp is bustling with activity, as day-trippers arrive for a quick hike along the Rainie Falls Trail and families disembark from their rented watercraft after a leisurely float down the river. Located 28 miles northwest of Grants Pass, at first glance it doesn’t look like a hotbed of crime.

But the area around the boat ramp has been the site of numerous break-ins over the years, especially after dark. No overnight parking is allowed in the lot next to the boat ramp itself, but Brad Niva, owner of Rogue Wilderness Adventures, which offers hiking, rafting and fishing trips, said people often park there anyway for days at a time. Drivers also park up the hill near the driveway to the boat ramp, and across the bridge by the Rainie Falls trailhead.

In late May, a man told the Sheriff’s Office that he and his wife returned from a three-day hike on the Rogue River Trail to find that the grill had been pried off their car, the hood had been forced open and someone had stolen the car’s battery. The thief also took a car jack, clothing and some snacks.

Another couple went backpacking for one night in late April, leaving their Subaru parked along Galice Road, above the trailhead. They came back to find a rear window smashed, both front doors ajar and a number of items missing including a wallet, the car battery, jumper cables, an ax and an iPod Touch. The burglar left behind clothing, cycling equipment and a car stereo.

“It’s happening all the time,” Niva said. “It’s not a daily occurrence, but it’s weekly that there’s someone whose car got broken into.”

Car owners come back from an outing, see broken glass and notice items missing, but don’t always realize right away that the burglar might have taken car parts, too.

“They sit down in their car and they put their key in the ignition and their car won’t start, and they pop their hood and their battery’s been stolen,” Niva said.

Many of the businesses in the area that cater to tourists and adventurers warn their customers about the break-ins, and tell them not to leave any valuables Ñ or any items at all Ñ inside parked cars. Rogue Wilderness Adventures will even let hikers park in its secured lot and give them a ride to the trailhead.

“During the day, normally it’s all right,” said Alex Mosley, of the Galice Resort, which shuttles passengers and their cars to and from rafting spots, among other services.

However, on a recent afternoon, cars belonging to two of his customers were broken into before employees could make it out to the Grave Creek boat ramp to collect the vehicles, he said. And on June 6, it was discovered that two cars parked on Galice Road right next to the resort had been broken into sometime overnight.

Mosley said he suspects the perpetrators are locals because they seem to know which cars have been parked in a given spot for multiple days. He said he believes thefts are increasing.

“This was the worst year so far,” he said.

Ernie Fields, the marine deputy with the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office, said he and Bureau of Land Management rangers perform extra patrols around the boat ramp when they learn of an increase in break-ins, although he noted, “I don’t hear about all of them.”

In the wake of three failed public safety levies in two years, the Sheriff’s Office is notoriously understaffed, with only two full-time patrol deputies working Monday through Friday. Fields’ job is a contract position through the Oregon State Marine Board. Some of the complaints from car break-in victims are emailed to the Sheriff’s Office because there are no dispatchers on duty nights or weekends.

“You just don’t want to leave anything out that someone can see, whether it’s valuable or not É it’s pretty simple just to break out a window if nobody’s around,” Fields said.

Auto burglaries near the Grave Creek boat ramp are nothing new, said Bob Rafalovich, who owned Rogue Wilderness Adventures until 2006. Rafalovich estimated that the break-ins began to be an issue around the mid-1990s.

“I think a lot of it had to do with a big increase in methamphetamine addiction around here,” he said, adding that other ramps including the Argo boat launch were also targeted.

“It’s been an ongoing problem, and it is exacerbated by the fact that we do not have decent sheriff’s patrols,” Rafalovich said. He said isolated rural areas have become a “mecca for criminals.”

Niva, the current owner of the adventure company, said, “There’s no public safety in the county. People can do whatever they want to do.”

He said thieves even targeted the toilet paper in the restrooms at the Grave Creek boat ramp recently, using a battery-powered cutting tool to get the paper out of the dispensers.

“I think whoever’s doing it lives off the grid Ñ they’re stealing batteries and they’re stealing toilet paper,” Niva said.

There are two ways to drive to the boat ramp; via Galice Road or Lower Grave Creek Road from Wolf Creek. Its remoteness makes it an easy target for criminals, said Ken Lloyd, a law enforcement ranger with the BLM, which owns the land there.

“It’s just something that’s always happened É This time of year, when visitation increases down there, is when the break-ins start to happen. It has increased since 2012 when the Sheriff’s Office lost a lot of their manpower. We don’t have as much presence down there as we used to,” Lloyd said, although he noted that there are occasional night patrols.

He said the BLM takes reports on property crimes but doesn’t investigate them. The Sheriff’s Office currently doesn’t have the staff to investigate most property crimes, but a new program is in the works that would allow trained volunteers to process crime scenes for incidents like burglaries.

The volunteer training is slated to begin this weekend.

Reach reporter Melissa McRobbie at 541-474-3721 or mmcrobbie@thedailycourier.com