People in a Niles neighborhood woke up this morning to find that someone had rummaged through their cars, and in some cases, stole items inside.

"Glove box is open. All the stuff out of the center consul's laying in the seat," says Ed Elkins, whose truck was one of the targets. "You feel violated. You don't know what to do. I don't know what I should do to protect the vehicles now incase they come back."

Elkins’ truck is one of about 50 broken into Tuesday night into Wednesday morning in the neighborhood on the south-side of Niles, just north of the state line. Police say in some cases, nothing was taken and in most cases the thieves took only loose change and cigarettes. In a couple instances, an iPod was stolen, as well as an empty wallet.

Based on the things that were taken, police say they’re most likely looking for kids or teens. They spent the day Wednesday fingerprinting cars and collecting evidence.

Most of the cars that were broken into were not locked and that, police say, is the first mistake.

"We want people to lock their car doors at night. We need them to turn on exterior lights,” explains Trooper John Moore, Michigan State Police. “Dogs are always great and they really need to call on any suspicious activity or anything they see."

Trooper Moore urges people to lock their doors, even though the criminals smashed the windows of at least two cars that were locked.

"There's glass everywhere,” says Samuel Gipson, whose glass windows are now scattered on the ground and on the seats of his car. “It's a massive mess."

"I'm just glad they didn't do it to our house windows instead of cars," adds Samuel’s sister, Rachel Gipson.

"This is in fact the second vehicle I had that had a broken window. First one was not too far up the road here," says Sgt. Randall Miller, Berrien County Sheriff Department. "Given the nature of what's being taken, loose change, it seems like they're grabbing whatever's quick in view and taking off and finding another target."

Police urge people to keep their cars empty and don’t leave anything in sight, even pocket change.