Think twice about leaving anything vaulable in your car.

[venomballistics]

Good advice.

I see vehicle break ins all the time. As a locksmith, I repair or replace the locks that have been damaged. I only hear about broken windows. And I've heard it a 100 times and it happened to me two years ago. They broke out a window and got me for $2500 in tools. So I have taken steps to prevent that again.

As I mentioned before there are some vehicle brands and models that are much too easy to break into. I won't mention them here for obvious reasons. The bad part is that when they take a screw driver to your door lock, it will override the factory alarm system the same as if you used your key. Thankfully this is hard to do on most vehicles.

I've seen people lose their GPS's, laptops, guns, cell phones and other items that were left out it the open. Factory consoles and glove boxes don't stop them.

IMO leaving your car unlocked in an urban area is irresponsible. There was a thread here over a year ago or so where a members truck was stolen and used in a crime. He left it unlocked. There are no guarantees but why make it easier?

The more I read you .. the more I get to like you.
If I had to guess, your profession has you thinking more like a thief than most, which leads to some more enlightened philosophies on the subject.

Don't know if you'd agree with me on this, but if you have the time to break into a car and root through it after youve clept the obvious targets, wouldn't it be about as time consuming to just take the whole car?

That seems to be the way they work out here anyhow.

If so, how do we make these things harder to do?
I think we all could benefit from a list of creative curve balls we can throw at them.

One fairly simple one is to park yourself in where less used vehicles are concerned. Thats one of the things I do with the stang while shes on winter vacation.
another issue is that the battery is removed so they will need to steal one of those first.
there is also a steel rod run through the wheels, acting as a low buck "invisible boot"

Now these things mostly apply to vehicles in storage and or special purpose like your beater plow truck.
( incidentally Omaha recovered someones stolen plow truck ... they burned it)
Lets start tossing out some serious ideas here.

 

[moe smith]

Maybe it is because I grew up in Brooklyn, NY

Me too. Sheepshead Bay. Do you remember the garbage strike in the 60's just before Christmas? People were wrapping their garbage as presents and leaving them in view on their unlocked car's back seat.

 

[venomballistics]

Me too. Sheepshead Bay. Do you remember the garbage strike in the 60's just before Christmas? People were wrapping their garbage as presents and leaving them in view on their unlocked car's back seat.

the problem is .... I can only like this once.
Therefore we need five more to give this a click, cause this has earned a sixpack

 

[Kanewpadle]

That makes good sense.

It is sort of like gates and fences on my property. They are as much of a psychological barrier to trespassers as they are physical barriers.

I do always lock my vehicles, by the way, except when they are in my yard, which is in a rural area.

I know my posts are a little confusing. The problem is that I cannot and will not explain how thieves bypass door locks and ignitions. I know you understand that.

I've seen thieves damage cars beyond belief. Sometimes they are successful and sometimes not although they are very close. They don't know how close because they lack the understanding of how the lock works. Some locks are far more complicated and intentionally designed to be more difficult.

"Tips and tricks" are commonly shared by thieves the same as we locksmiths do. So over time, if they keep up their thieving ways they will learn which vehicles to target. But because "we" don't know what they do we must make it difficult for them just the same.

With over twenty years of locksmithing, the company I work for does more automotive work than anyone in the region. We stock a wide variety of vehicle door locks and ignitions. And because some vehicles are the usual suspects we carry more of those.

We may or may not see more of this than cops but I do know that many of these crimes go unreported. People simply break out their checkbooks and pay for the repairs because they don't believe the thieves will ever be caught. They quite often do not report these things to their insurance company.

All I can say is that if people knew and saw what I have repeatedly, they would not make it easier let alone leave things in their vehicle whether in the open or not.

As a side note: I have been to many residential burglaries where there were no signs of forced entry and the home owners were sure that no one else had a key. Their insurance companies would NOT pay because there were no signs of forced entry and they claimed the door was left unlocked. I wonder how this would apply to a vehicle?

 

[loc n load]

Break in's

I thought of this incident after my first post.....my brother in law is a trapper....and a couple of years ago he had several dead, frozen raccoons in the back seat of his car, they were stuffed into "toys are us" sacks....he stopped at Wal Mart for something and when he returned to the car, he had been burgaled, the sacks and dead raccoons were gone......would have loved to seen their faces when they peeked into those bags....
Merry Christmas to all of you folks and have a safe / prosperous new year!!

 

[Kanewpadle]

The more I read you .. the more I get to like you.
If I had to guess, your profession has you thinking more like a thief than most, which leads to some more enlightened philosophies on the subject.

Don't know if you'd agree with me on this, but if you have the time to break into a car and root through it after youve clept the obvious targets, wouldn't it be about as time consuming to just take the whole car?

That seems to be the way they work out here anyhow.

If so, how do we make these things harder to do?
I think we all could benefit from a list of creative curve balls we can throw at them.

One fairly simple one is to park yourself in where less used vehicles are concerned. Thats one of the things I do with the stang while shes on winter vacation.
another issue is that the battery is removed so they will need to steal one of those first.
there is also a steel rod run through the wheels, acting as a low buck "invisible boot"

Now these things mostly apply to vehicles in storage and or special purpose like your beater plow truck.
( incidentally Omaha recovered someones stolen plow truck ... they burned it)
Lets start tossing out some serious ideas here.

You are correct. I have to think like a thief. With my knowledge and experience, I can help my customers better protect themselves. But only to a certain degree.

And yes they could just take the car instead. But maybe they don't know how to. Anyone can break a window or screwdriver a lock. And that may or may not be successful. To bypass an ignition, especially on a late model car can be extremely difficult.

We learn from the European countries about auto security. Their theft rate is worse. So much of the technology in today's vehicles comes from them. Some of it we make better and some worse.

I have seen thieves do things that amaze me wondering how they did it. And I've seen things that made shake my head wondering what the heck they were thinking.

The availability of common cordless tools hasn't helped either.

As far as making things harder for them, there isn't much you can do other than the obvious. Securing a vehicle is much more difficult than your home.

The thing to remember is to make it harder in hopes they go somewhere else. If you make it easy, they will come back again. And some believe that all thieves are professionals or know how to break into anything. That's not even close to the truth. A professional doesn't want your car or what's in it unless it is extremely valuable and he has a place to turn it for a profit. A small time thief doesn't want your car either unless he's stealing it for a chop shop or he simply needs some quick transportation. Sometimes, especially with kids it's simply the thrill of stealing something for the heck of it. So again, why make it easy? If it's easy then they will gain more confidence and continue. The common items stolen are often taken to pawn shops. So if they cause a few hundred dollars to a car to get $30 for a GPS, what do they care?

 

[NYlakesider]

As far as always locking your car, that's not always the case with convertibles. A ragtop is easy to open with a stock knife of basically anything that has a blade. A top cost serious money to replace and until you do you have a serious leaking car unless your real good with duct tapes.

I know many people with convertibles and with mine I normally let it unlocked when out and about with nothing in it worth steeling. I do my best to find a good safe spot and I'm a car guy and many of my cars have a secret kill switch I can act activate that precludes attempts to bypass the ignition lock. In my garage no problem as I have done certain things to make it hard to force the door open.

Not looking to argue but there are different reasons for doing certain things.

 

[Kanewpadle]

As far as always locking your car, that's not always the case with convertibles. A ragtop is easy to open with a stock knife of basically anything that has a blade. A top cost serious money to replace and until you do you have a serious leaking car unless your real good with duct tapes.

I know many people with convertibles and with mine I normally let it unlocked when out and about with nothing in it worth steeling. I do my best to find a good safe spot and I'm a car guy and many of my cars have a secret kill switch I can act activate that precludes attempts to bypass the ignition lock. In my garage no problem as I have done certain things to make it hard to force the door open.

Not looking to argue but there are different reasons for doing certain things.

Agreed. Like I said earlier, there are too many variables.

 

[Rastoff]

As far as always locking your car, that's not always the case with convertibles.

Your logic is sound, but the criminals don't think like you do. If it's their intent to steal from a convertible, they'll likely just cut the roof first without ever checking to see if the door is locked.

Maybe I'm just a cynic. I believe that anything that will slow the criminal down, is a good thing. So, I'm going to lock the car.