Wilmette residents reported a cluster of property crimes over the July 4 holiday weekend, capping weeks of similar incidents that have put the village on edge heading into summer.

The busiest night came on Thursday, July 3, when an unlocked car was stolen from the 600 block of Forest Avenue and later recovered in Chicago, a home on the 400 block of Wilshire Drive was broken into — though police say it's unclear whether anything was taken — and bags of merchandise were stolen from a business in the 3200 block of Lake Avenue.

The July 3 incidents followed a pattern stretching through June. A wallet was taken from an unlocked car on Fourth Street on June 25. A locked bicycle was stolen from the 700 block of Green Bay Road on June 17. Packages were taken from outside a home on Meadow Drive West on June 18. On July 2, a bicycle stolen from a backyard in the 600 block of Harvard Street was tracked by GPS to Chicago.

The pattern extends beyond Wilmette. In Kenilworth on June 18, two unlocked cars were stolen overnight from driveways on Oxford Road and Essex Road and recovered in Chicago before 5 a.m.

Against that backdrop, the Wilmette Police Department is planning its annual National Night Out gathering in August, the nationwide crime-prevention tradition that brings neighbors outside for an evening with local police and firefighters. A specific date, time, and location have not been posted publicly; nationally, the event falls on Tuesday, August 4. Residents can contact the department at its temporary headquarters at 3220 Big Tree Lane — where it has been operating while a new $41.5 million station is under construction at 710 Ridge Road — for details.