Safe and secure while traveling

[Brian Brown]

The wife and I just returned from a vacation. While we were gone, our car was broken into. If you are interested, you can read the story here http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=137791 . We have always worked hard to stay safe, and leave little of value in the car, but as our society seems to be in a constant state of decline, I am wondering what more we can do to keep ourselves and our stuff safe. When they broke into our car, they did several thousand dollars damage to the car, and got almost nothing for their efforts. What if anything will keep thieves from breaking into a car in the first place. I am looking for practical and realistic ideas, but the funny and non-realistic solutions are welcome also. After all, I need something to laugh at after this mess.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Brian,

I feel your pain.

I try to never leave anything in plain sight. Nothing.

I try to park in a lighted area in view of say the motel office.....and if possible away from other vehicles.

[Greg Crawford]

Just get a car like one of these;

http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=138205

[Mitchell Andrus]

What if anything will keep thieves from breaking into a car in the first place.

Simple answer:

Leave it open and they don't need to cause thousands of dollars worth of damage to get in. If there's nothing to steal, you're ahead of the game. If they want the car, a locked door isn't going to stop them.

More complicated answer:

Don't park in places of known crime.
Hide everything.
Use an alarm.
Drive a klunker.

Most auto burglary is a crime of opportunity committed by passers-by who don't steal for a living - like kids going to the movies. They see a GPS unit and take 10 seconds out of their busy day to own one, your's, on the cheap.
.

[AL Ursich]

I think for a few Bananas this would be a great cure.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCUBxgdKZ_Y

AL

[Ray Bell]

"Simple answer:

Leave it open and they don't need to cause thousands of dollars worth of damage to get in. If there's nothing to steal, you're ahead of the game. If they want the car, a locked door isn't going to stop them".

You know there is something to this. I have a friend with a cabin out of Dayton Wa. in the Blue Mts. The cabin was broken into several times, with damage each time. Finally he just started leaving it unlocked. He put a note inside that says something like "if you need to use the cabin, please do, but please do no damage". As far as I know there has never been anymore damage.

As far as vehicles, I don't know. Just like your home, if they want in the will get in.

Glad you made it home safely Brian.

[Brian Ashton]

Just don't let the insurance company know you left it open or you'll be uninsured.

[Tom Godley]

It's a shame -- but in many areas you just have to keep everything in the trunk or out of view.

Back in the 80's I never locked my convertible in NYC -- I even had a sign on the window so they knew it was open!. I had to do the same thing in Philadelphia in the early 90's -- non convertible. They would smash a window for a quarter!

On standard policies theft is a covered peril - so if you purchase coverage for theft - your car is covered if it is open. I have seen one business policy that attempted to limit a loss if the keys were in the car -- but it looked almost unenforceable.


People do dumb stuff all the time -- thats why we need insurance - and being dumb is insured.

[Pat Germain]

Sure, it helps to not keep anything valuable in view. But as Brian pointed out, it doesn't always work. I'm sorry to say there's really nothing we can do. Thieves will smash a window and climb inside without even looking. They may not even check to see if the door is locked. Once they're in, then they look around for something to steal.

What really disappoints me is that thieves typically get away such smash and grab operations. The police consider it a petty crime and have bigger fish to fry. So, there's not much incentive to deter petty thieves from such petty crimes.

There's an upscale neighborhood in Colorado Springs which sometimes has problems with people smashing car windows purely for vandalism. Nothing is stolen. It's just nonsense.

[Shawn Pixley]

Sorry for your loss.

Thieves always have a master brick for your car. Bottom line, never leave any thing in it you are unwilling to lose. Motels are an easy target because of the very thing that happened to you; people leave their stuff in the car. Cameras, GPS and the like. Seeing the tripod, they thought there would be more...

Sorry again

[Jude Tuliszewski]

Don’t bet on not having a window broke out if the car is unlocked or parking in a well lit place to keep from having a car stolen.

When I was in high school I had a 69 Camaro and worked part time at a large grocery store. We would use the store as a central meeting place to go out. I would park my car directly under a street light facing a major road and well within sight of the store. Yes, you guessed it; we came back and where the car was, was just broke glass on what was the driver side (which was the side to the store). The cashier said she saw a couple of people around the car and then saw it leaving with the headlights off but didn’t really thing about it. Really pissed me off, I had just finished doing some body work before getting some new colors sprayed, new rear meats where a graduation present and when the car was found the wheels where gone. It must have been the first time for the morons who took it because they could not get into the trunk but put holes all around the lock. Since they could not get into the trunk they broke out the rear window and destroyed the speaker, as well as the rest of the stereo system cause they could not get any of it out ether (which at the time I was ahead of the curve as there were no boom boom mobiles back in 1982).

About 15 years ago I had a beater 82 Honda Accord three door. Good car mechanically but not pretty. I also had a Jeep pick-up at the time and on one particular night took the Jeep to work instead of the beater. The beater was parked in the street in front on the house we lived in at the time. So when I came home from work I could see that the driver side rear window was broken out. The rub is the car was completely unlocked. There was some strange guy walking around aimlessly (I think he did it but I could prove nothing) and I asked if he saw anything but he said no but seemed to me to be high and looked surprised when I opened the door without unlocking it and telling him it was unlocked. The bone head could have saved himself some trouble if he would have just tried the door. Also, at the time, I recently replaced the dash and only had the gauges put back in, no stereo, no clock, not even the vent diffusers. Not to mention that the back seats were folded down and the only thing in the hatch area was a couple of blankets. So I still, too this day, I cannot figure out what the guy was after. Probable a drugie looking for something he could pawn or trade for more drugs.
Sorry if it is a little long but had to tell it that way to make it sound right.


So Brain, I feel your pain.