Four years ago — soon after we moved into this house — somebody broke into my car.
We only have room for one vehicle in the garage, so I park on the street. One foggy February morning, I walked to my Ford Focus as usual, opened the back door, and put my stuff on the seat. But when I slammed the door closed, a shower of glass fell to the ground. Somebody had smashed the driver’s window.
I didn’t have time to mess around with the broken window, so I swept the glass from the seat and drove to work. It was cold. On the way, I tried to inventory the damage. Only the one window was broken. All of my CDs still seemed to be there (who would want to steal music from the 1920s?), but my cell phone was gone. (The stupid thief had left the charger to which it had been connected.) That was all that was missing from the front seat.
When I got to work, I searched the rest of the car. Nothing in the back seat was taken, which was good, because I had both my personal and my business checkbook sitting in plain view, with checks made out to both accounts from various sources. And I had my business credit card there, too. (Yes, this was very stupid of me.) But it was when I checked the trunk that my heart sank. My bag of camera equipment was gone. I was missing a small fortune in lenses and filters and more. I cursed my carelessness.
I reported the theft to the police, and they took down a report. The woman I talked to was sympathetic, but not hopeful. “There’s been a rash of car burglaries in your neighborhood,” she said.
“Is there anything I can do?” I asked. “Is it better to park in the driveway instead of on the street? Should I lock the door? Keep it unlocked?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “A determined burglar is going to get in. If it were my car, I’d leave it unlocked, because then at least there’s less chance of having the window smashed.”
Ever since, I’ve left my car unlocked when I park it on the street — which is every day. And I never leave anything of value in the vehicle anymore.
A month later, a friend found my camera equipment. The burglar had dumped it in the bushes by the corner of our property. He had apparently gone through the bag looking for valuables, not realizing the camera gear itself was worth a couple thousand bucks. After a little clean up, the equipment was fine.
I was fortunate my foolishness did not cost me more.
The next year, a thief broke into Kris’ car. Maybe it was a different thief. Maybe not. Fortunately, Kris doesn’t keep anything of value in her vehicle. In fact, there’s rarely anything in the cabin at all.
When the burglar’s search came up empty, he popped the trunk. That’s when he found the jackpot: jumper cables. That’s right — a burglar ransacked Kris’ car, and all he took was jumper cables. I can’t even begin to imagine what was going through this his head.
Fast forward a couple of years. I’ve been parking on the street without incident since that first act of vandalism. I keep my doors unlocked and there are no valuables in the car — unless you count my CDs of music from the 1920s.
Today I went out to run some errands. When I got into the car, I was surprised to find my water bottle on the floor. “That’s odd,” I thought. And then I realized…I’d been burgled again. I performed a quick survey. Trash on the floor of the back seat? Check. CDs of music from the 1920s? Check. Everything in the glove compartment? Check. iPod transmitter? Uh, no. Parking-meter change? Also gone.
Sometime during the past few days, a thief — possibly the same thief as three years ago — broke into my car and stole an iPod transmitter and a handful of quarters, nickels, and dimes. He didn’t steal anything else because there was nothing else to steal. He didn’t smash my window because the door was left unlocked. All he got was a cheap electronic device and enough change for a two-liter bottle of soda. I hope he’s having a good time.
Sometimes when bad things happen to me, I get tense. I get frustrated. But for some reason, none of these thefts bother me. Maybe it’s because the burglar hasn’t actually absconded with much: just a cell phone, an iPod transmitter, some jumper cables, and a handful of change. Still, it would be nice if I didn’t have to worry about thieves breaking into my car…
Do you have any suggestions? Have you ever experienced a similar problem? Is it even worth my time to take further precautions? Have I exhausted the statistical likelihood that a burglar will break into our cars again? (I mean three times in four years — come on! Go pick on somebody else.)
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I have to agree with the people who’ve suggested getting a cheaper car. My father’s Mercedes has been broken into several times even though he leaves nothing in plain sight.
My old Tercel? Not only does not get broken into (I too keep it spotless inside), but when bad things do happen, I save a lot of money compared to your average SUV or newer models. Plus it’s great on gas!
If you must have a car, make it small and reliable.
As for keeping music in your car, why not burn your favourite cd’s onto a blank disc? They have no resale value.
Please don’t buy a noisy car alarm… worst invention ever (next to the plastic grocery bag).
=)
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I live in a city full of crime. Car break-ins are a cost of living here. I’ve had four in my lifetime on the East Coast if I remember correctly.
I miss my old car – it didn’t have a trunk release. I felt safer leaving my purse in the trunk at the mall. I think that frustrated the criminals who broke in because they broke the other window once they were in.
NOTHING in plain sight I agree with. When I read your post JD I was shocked you left checks in the car?? I couldnt believe it! And yes, I agree even a few coins can tempt a break-in.
Another popular item: Winter coats. Several friends have left their coats in the car before we hit the town – only to come back with their window and coat gone.
This is a bit OT – but if I have my way I will always have a stick shift car – it is the #1 car thief deterent (at least where I live where car theft is mostly joy riding). My car was “stolen” – they found out a bit too late they couldnt drive stick right and kept stalling. They made it about a block before the police descended on them as they were putt-putting away.
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I honestly don’t think the cost of the car really matters when it comes to break ins. I know people with older cars who has had issues with break-ins and car theft. The older the car, the easier is it to steal. None of the people I know with “nicer” cars (including us) has had problems other than having a car keyed once.
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I was confused by JT’s comment about installing a garage door opener on garage door #2.. I know you live in Oregon, but you’re already parking at the curb and walking into the house. Surely you could get out of your car to manually open the garage door??
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This happened to me recently as well. Same exact thing – I thought everything was fine but when I closed the back door of my Elantra a bunch of glass fell off from the other side and it took me a few minutes to put two and two together.
The only thing they took was an empty backpack, so it could have been worse. I had made the mistake of parking in a pretty bad area of town. Truly I think people are less likely to take the chance of breaking in if absolutely nothing is visible. In my case the backpack probably could have held a laptop (to a thief’s eyes)
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I’ve had my car broken into a couple times before too. The only thing stolen from me was a portable CD player that I plugged into the tape deck (it was a while ago). The other time, I had left my wallet in the car but it didn’t have any cash in it. I guess the thief didn’t think my credit cards were valuable.
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You guys have some great suggestions. Just to clarify things about the garage and why I don’t use it:
We live in an old house. The garage is detached. It’s a separate building about a hundred feet from the house. It’s actually an old barn or storage shed that has been converted to a garage. There are two garage doors, but as I said, they’re fussy and non-standard. The installation guy groused about the first opener, and he thought it would be very difficult to do the second one. (Though he did say it could be done.) That, and we do use the garage for storage, especially during winter. Kris keeps her canning jars there. When the rain arrives, the picnic table and lawn furniture goes inside.
I know that all sounds like rationalization, and maybe it is. I’ve said all along that when I get my Mini Cooper, I’ll park it in the garage. Maybe I should park the Focus, too. (Oh yeah — there’s nothing about that old car that makes it a desirable target, except that I have lots of crap laying around inside.)
Finally, our neighborhood is not a bad neighborhood. It’s a good neighborhood, and we love our neighbors. Most of all, we love our house. However, there are a couple of bad seeds around…
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My friend’s 87 Corrolla was stolen from Lloyd Center when we went to see a movie, a couple weeks later I found it parked on the street downtown littered with parking tickets (shouldn’t the meter maid’s handhelds be connected to the police depts records? I mean, this was in the same city).
About a year later her window was broken and her gym bag taken on a super busy street in the Pearl District. funny thing about that, when she had the window repair guy come out to fix the two front windows that were broken he found out (after he took the door apart) that the passenger window was just rolled down by the thieves, not broken
Her ’05 Camry hasn’t been broken into in the past 3 1/2 years that she’s had it. I think it has a blinky light.
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JD,
I think that if you would park your Mini Cooper in the garage, then you should get your Focus in there too. It will have everything ready for you when you switch. If you put it off till after you get the Mini, there is a good chance you’ll keep putting it off and never get it done.
I recommend installing the opener yourself – especially if you have a friend who is handy who might be willing to help you out. There is a good chance that the installation guy complained just because he couldn’t do the setup as straightforward as in a new garage. This will save you a lot of money and be a good learning experience!
Focuses and Minis are short and narrow cars – I bet you could find a way to rearrange things so you can still store your lawn furniture while parking there.
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I had a jeep with a convertible top that was broken into 3 consecutive nights. I had the faceplate of my stereo in my house, but the thief was trying to pull out the rest of the stereo. The damage put the car in the shop for a few days and I parked in a different location in my neighborhood afterwards. I also added a small paper sign to one of the windows of my convertible top that read “No money. No stereo. No kidding.” I had seen this elsewhere and thought it was cute, but could it be effective? Well, I never got broken into again and I had the vehicle in the same neighborhood for another 5 years.
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Something else I should have mentioned…As I said earlier I live in Memphis where crime is high. My neighborhood has an association. That helps alot cause they have block captains and meetings and internet message boards where neighbors talk about these problems. People get to know one another and know the problems going on in the area.
A few years back the neighborhood got together and hired private security to patrol the area. With 200 households paying $35/month we were able to hire one private truck to drive around 24/7. Those 200 people have direct access to the private security (that gets there usually before the police). The rest of us (non-payers) still reap the benefits of having extra security. It has helped with violent crime and home invasions, but the biggest improvement has been in curtailing petty crime (like car break-ins). Our neighborhood has been so impressed with the added security that another 200 households have ponied up $35/month and we now have 2 trucks patrolling 24/7.
I live in a pretty affluent neighborhood, and it may not be feasible to hire private security in your neighborhood. But starting an association or at the very least organizing some meetings and setting up a message board and getting some email addresses to keep people in touch would be something any income level could do.
My neighborhood has a website if you want more information – click on security service to read about the private security http://www.centralgardens.org
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I live in a very nice area, but right across a river from one of the worst areas in my city. My street is apartments with single garages in back for blocks. A couple of months ago, we walked outside to go to work and saw cops up and down the block. A couple thieves came over and stole stuff out of peoples’ cars….in all the unlocked garages. They got everyone in our building except us.
We shook our heads, called our neighbors idiots, and carried on. Also, the only things of value in my car are attached to my car (radio which has a cover I always close). The only cds I keep in there are burned copies of cds I keep in the house.
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Alexander @ #92 said: “A good thief will open a car, IGNITE IT and drive away in under 2 minutes.” (I added the capitalization for emphasis)
I’d think that it would be easy for the police to keep an eye out for flaming cars driving down the road…
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“Finally, our neighborhood is not a bad neighborhood. It’s a good neighborhood, and we love our neighbors. Most of all, we love our house. However, there are a couple of bad seeds around…”
lol; that is EXACTLY what people say on the news about their neighborhoods when being interviewed after a heinous crime.
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I used to live in San Francisco and learned a few hard lessons just as you did.
I had the latch disconnected to pop the trunk from inside my car. This made it impossible to get inside my trunk without a key. This gave me a place to put valuables if I could not take them out of the car.
Also, never put anything of value in the trunk after you park. Put it in the trunk before you move the car. If anyone sees you put anything in the trunk after parking, you make your car a target (learned this the hard way too).
Otherwise you are correct: leave nothing of value in plain site.
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That sucks, good that nothing valuable was stolen. When I was a kid someone broke into our van in a public parking lot. They took two cheap pair of sunglasses that were on the dash but didn’t take the portable stereo or wallet full of cash? Thieves are weird. I left my purse in a moving van one time while we were loading stuff from a music video shoot (Elton John), someone stole my wallet while we were only yards away. Or this is a good one, my friends had the doors of their jeep removed while it was parked on the street. Apparently there was a whole rash of jeep door thefts in the neighborhood and it was almost $2k to get them replaced. I’d keep the car in the driveway if you can, but if you’re not that concerned just keep doing what you’re doing.
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You said the second garage door will be difficult to add an opener to. Why not get out of the car and open it by hand? A loss of convenience, sure, but a savings of $200 or more.
That doesn’t solve the storage issue, but that might be better solved by spring cleaning, or getting a cheap shed for the lawn furniture, etc.
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Definitely never leave valuables in the car – in sight or not. I had to tell my visiting sister to even take snack food/crackers inside to avoid having her car broken into. In that same neighborhood, I had an old Honda that my husband and I were getting ready to sell when – to our luck – it got stolen! We were actually quite happy about it. They found it but we were able to take the insurance money (which was a little more than what we thought we could get if sold) and didn’t have to pay taxes (like we would have if we had sold it). In an incident prior when I lived in a “safer” neighborhood, I had left my stereo faceplate on, which means they took the entire stereo. I learned my lesson and always take my faceplate with me now, even if I’m going somewhere for just a few minutes.
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Gosh… who knew car burglaries would be such a community bonding moment?
My ideas:
~Clean the garage. A pain- yes. Worth it? That’s up to you.
~Motion-sensor light. Cheap, easy to set up, and probably less hassle than the garage clean up project.
~Make a neighborhood coalition.
Car thieves will steal anything (I had my powder compact and hair brush stolen from my car- ewww, but the thieves left all identity papers and my $100 parking pass. Since I reported the crime to the police and told details about what they stole they were tracked down a year later and charged). Reporting every break-in can help, even after you’ve long given up hope.
Try to get heightened awareness of the problem out to the neighbors might help. Someone might see someone go to your car and open the door. They may think that it’s someone you gave your keys to- since the car door opened right up.
Try asking the young professional who goes to the gym and 5am to keep an eye out for suspicious behavior. Ask the nigh-owl who walkes their dog at 11pm to do the same. Ask a house wife to keep her eyes peeled during the day. Put up those “community watch signs”. Have neighbors also install motion sensors on their lights. Ask who knows someone in law enforcement who might be able to help you out. If not, request that an office comes out and give your neighborhood coalition a home and car safety talk. My neighborhood did this when I lived in a sketchy area of LA, and it was helpful.
Just bringing the problem to light may bring about community action and make your neighborhood less prone to theft.
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Are you really that stupid?
Keeping your doors unlocked is just nuts.
You are inviting others to sleep, urinate, etc. in your vehicle.
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Actually, your comments about parking in the garage by manually opening the damn thing are excellent. I work from home, right? I don’t go out that often. Parking in the garage seems like a goal I should strive to achieve.
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That’s so sad to hear JD, at least you were smart enough to not keep valuables in the car.
My dad’s work car was recently broken into and the change was stolen from the change tray. According to police, it’s a craze of thefts for drug money.
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If you have a garage opener in the car, he/she can easily look up your address in the insurance card in the glove box and use it to break into your house. Scary!
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When I lived in Southern California I had my car broken in to in a church parking lot – on Easter Sunday no less!
I agree with the others – no valuables in plain site, tint the windows, and have an alarm system put in (or a faux alarm).
One other thing: I set my dome light to come on when I open the door or push the unlock button for the power locks. If the light doesn’t come on – I approach with caution. I don’t want any surprises.
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I once took friends who were in town for a convention to the Bloedel Conservatory. We weren`t inside long, but while we were looking at tropical plants and birds somebody went down the line of parked cars and broke into several of them, the one we were driving included.
It was actually my daughter`s car, an older Mustang. He ruined the passenger side door lock and took a couple of small items. I think he was mostly concentrating on trying to get the stereo out (unsuccessfully).
One of the girls had left her bag on the floor of the front passenger seat and, amazingly, her passport and money for the trip were still in a pocket of the bag! Other people parked by us were missing more, including a credit card IIRC.
As for your situation, it seems to either be teens doing it for kicks or a druggie. I would grit my teeth, clean out the other side of the garage, get the door functional and start parking inside.
Of course, you still have to be vigilant about leaving the car empty when you park in public places and there`s not much you can do about pure vandalism. We got all four door panels keyed a few months ago by a guy who has done this to literally hundreds of cars in Greater Vancouver and we just don`t have $300 that we don`t need for any other purpose to pay the deductible.
I believe this person is both mentally ill and has some grudge against ICBC but it is really infuriating when you consider that every affected car owner has to pay that $300 to get his or her car fixed!
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On his 30th birthday, my hubby was pistol whipped and mugged on our front porch. A couple weeks later we phoned the police to break up a drug deal going on in our front yard. I guess the bad guys found out about it because the next day our house was broken into and vandalized. Spray paint (and worse) on all the walls, the furniture, everything that could be was broken and everything that could be carried gathered up and put on the bed. I guess they were going to carry it out bundled in the blanket or something. But they got disturbed and only left with my boom box and my wedding ring. (I was pregnant and it didn’t fit on my finger anymore.)
What the bad guys didn’t destroy was pretty much destroyed by the cops and their fingerprinting powder. No prints were found, the guys were never caught. I was so terrified and afraid for my family’s safety that we moved the following weekend.
It took months to get over that feeling of being violated and unsafe in my own home. Once I got to the point of saying, “It’s just STUFF,” I healed quickly.
If my house burned down right this minute I’d be fine with the loss as long as my family gets out safely. The only things I might miss are family photographs, videos of the kids as babies, that kind of thing. I’ve really had to let it all go and realize that even the clothes on my back won’t make it out of this life with me.
I’m not going to do dumb stuff like leave my purse on the passenger seat in an unlocked car with the windows down while I go to the store, but I’m also not going to invest my heart so deeply in a “thing” that can rust, be stolen or broken.
My stuff can all be replaced, the lives of my loved ones can’t be. That’s the “neighborhood” where my head is living these days.
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out of sight out of mind…normally.
i think it was highly irresponsible of the cop to suggest you not lock your car door. Yes, a determined burglar will do what it takes to get the job done; however, insurance and liability are against you if you didn’t take “reasonable” precautions to prevent a theft.
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Like #45 Mike suggested – since you work from home and don’t go out often, wouldn’t it be better (and much cheaper!) to only have one car? You might not even need a scooter (though I do recommend having a nice bike). You might be surprised at how easy it is – and it gives you more money and the thieves absolutely nothing to steal.
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I think it is especially a problem in PDX… why? Meth. The person sounds so desperate that they probably broke into multiple cars until they found enough cash to get their next fix. I have seen multiple cars in a row with broken windows. Sad.
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Leaving you door unlocked sounds like a good idea, but it would make it easier for theives so steal one the most valuable items in your car that you don’t might not think about, your gas. Open the door, pop the gas tank lever and siphon out the fuel…
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sorry to hear JD..
i had some car speakers taken out of my garage a few months back.. my mom had left the garage door open one night by accident.. the actual speakers weren’t being used.. they were just lying in the garage collecting dust.. luckily they didn’t go inside the house or take anything else
one suggestion? maybe getting a survailance camera.. or motion lights.. same thing happened to my friends (broken windows to their cars) and they now have cameras set up in their front door and front yard just in case it happens again
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You have neighborhood car prowlers that’s all. They get bored and rummage through other peoples stuff.
The only sensible item stolen were the jumper cables. Maybe the prowler had a dead battery.
Three years later it is probably the first prowlers younger siblings and their friends.
See television is bad for kids. It leaves them empty and bored and wanting to get away with whatever is wicked and not get caught.
I blame television.
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I think you should just keep doing what you are doing, with one exception…
Put a little pop-up note in your glove compartment that, when opened, says “Nothing here… congratulations on wasting your time.”
People are gonna do what they are gonna do, might as well let it roll of the back and not stress about it.
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I would never leave my car door unlocked. What if a burglar decides next time to steal the car itself? Your insurance policy almost certainly does not cover you if you leave the door unlocked.
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JD, you seem to be on good or friendly terms with your neighbors. If there have been other burglaries in town, why not form a Neighborhood Watch group with them? At the minimum, you’d be walking around for a spell (something for Get Fit Slowly!) and getting to know some of your less familiar neighbors. Get a group together, consult with the police for advice and any cautions, get a sign or two up on streets where there have been break-ins, maybe even have a talented writer in the group (hint hint) do a press release for your community weekly, and do recruitment during the National Night out (1st Tues. of each August). This, combined with some of the theft-deterrent advice in this thread, might help harden the defenses of the town and convince casual thieves to try easier targets or just hop a bus and go to Somebody Else’s Problemville.
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Taken: Worn-out sneakers, an old picnic blanket, disc 2 of Forty Licks, and a tattered Nerf ball
Left: A set of golf clubs
The moral: Don’t trust your worthless junk to Sacramento car thieves. Your valuables, on the other hand, will be just fine.
The only kicker is that they left a nearly one-inch gap between the lock on the passenger door and the body that’s impossible to fix. There went pretty much all of my trade-in value.
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JD, you have very good timing on your posts lately. This just happened to my boyfriend. His late 1990s convertible was parked on a street of a very nice neighborhood (e.g., in the driveway of the house was a BMW). Yet some thief smashed in his passenger side window. He went through the glovebox, but there’s nothing there (the title is at home).
So what did the thief get for his trouble? He stole about 20 of my boyfriend’s mixed CDs–MIXED! You can’t even sell those! Including one that was a Christmas present from me. He also took the collection of loose change.
And yet, he missed the GPS that was sitting in the armrest.
It really sucks that this is the third time it has happened to you! Maybe the community you’re in can install better lighting, put up signs for “Neighborhood Watch”, etc.
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I had my purse stolen out of my trunk while I was at a yoga class. It was locked in the trunk – mistake # 1, and the car was unlocked – mistake # 2, and they took out the back seat and stole it from inside the care. Karma…
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I leave my car unlocked most of the time. I also drive a junker. I do occasionally leave my wallet in the car, and don’t freak out if I forget and leave something valuable inside. My experience is that people are less likely to break into a 15-year-old car with junk all over, that clearly isn’t being cared for lovingly.
Obviously, not a solution everyone is comfortable with.
I was robbed once, the night after I bought my first car (which looked like new, and was only three years old). In retrosopect, I’m pretty sure one of the apartment managers was the thief; I mentioned it to them, and no one tried to use my cards or anything even though I never got around to reporting it. The door on the car was locked, but the car was really easy to break into; my husband and I both locked our keys in and broke into our vehicle ourselves at one point or another.
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@Mr. ToughMoneyLove: Good grief why does JD live there?
It’s car burglaries, not drive-by-shooting, home invasion, or homicide. Give me f’ing a break, if everyone moves due to petty theft and crime, we’d all have no where to live.
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JD: I would just suck it up, and get the new door installed. Cost of living, you know?
In addition, if you need more storage, just build a small lean-to, add-on to the back of the detached garage. Sure, it’ll take up some more space, but you and actually have it measured to demenstions that are better for your equipment, and easier to get in and out, if you want.
If you don’t want to do it yourself, that’s the kind of easy build that you can hire out without much cost. On the other hand, you could just head over to Home Depot, and pick up one of those put-to-gether plastic jobbies.
Seriously, park your car in the garage!
& good luck!
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I have never had my apartment or car broken into:
NRA (National Rifle Association) sticker on the car and a dog (Choc Lab) in the apartment seem to do the trick.
I have lived in an apartment with a bad reputation for 2 years that 4 of my neighbors house and cars have been broken into. Mine hasn’t.
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My husband has an old Camry which refuses to die, and I have a 2001 Prius. Since 2006 the Camry has been broken into once (locks were destroyed and radio stolen), one of the tabs was cut off of the plate, and the car was rummaged through (nothing of value in the car, car is not of much value, and the stereo was already gone). My car has not has not been the target of any theft, possibly because of the theft-deterrent system.
I guess it goes to show that just because your car is a rusty piece of junk, doesn’t mean you’re safe from criminals.
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Thieves are total pains in the ass.
My father’s van window was smashed twice in the SAME WEEK. Same window too. My dad never has anything in the car so they didn’t take much.
The whole ordeal is annoying when he tries to get to work and you find that you have to shell out $100 to fix it. Time is wasted and getting to work is bothersome in the winter with cold air running in.
It’s like nothing will stop them. No matter how luxurious or crappy your car is, they’ll break in. I’d like to put a big warning sign in the car saying, “YOU ARE BEING VIDEOTAPED!”. But then, that’ll just tempt them to vandalize your car, even if there is nothing in it.
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So now car burglaries aren’t “real” crimes and have no financial consequences or repercussions for those that are burgled?
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My Honda Civic, parked on the street, was broken into and stolen last winter. Fortunately, it was recovered four days later. No real damage to the car (except they stole, of all things, my spare tire and my snow brush).
Because I’m more worried about the actual car being stolen, not the stuff in it, I always get dibs on the garage (my husband parks his Nissan on the street).
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I’m so sorry
You must like by us. Our across the street neighbors have had 2 cars stolen and a window shot out in the last 5 years.
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I had someone break my window for a pack of twizzlers and a pepsi sitting on the front seat. It was all that I had in the car. I had to drive from Vancouver BC to Everett Wa in January without a window!
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Here’s my break-in story–thieves broke my back driver’s side window to take a black bag off my backseat. I would imagine they thought it held a laptop but it actually held sorority handbooks. I was bitter right after it happened, but now I just smile when I imagine the looks on their faces when they opened it!
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http://www.ehow.com/how_2310682_burglar-proof-house.html
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