A recent story in the local news here reminded me of the resiliency of thieves. Most of us have become accustomed to removing valuables from our parked cars, thinking that doing so will cause thieves to take a pass on our car and move on to one where the goodies they seek can be found in plain sight. With so much attention paid to cyber-crooks and identity theft in recent years, it is easy to lose vigilance on the more rudimentary acts like removing stuff from your car, but stories like this remind us that thieves find value in things that don’t appear, on face value, to have much value.
A Bay Area family went on a trip for a few days and left their car in one of the off-site parking lots at the airport. Like most of us, they were careful to tuck all of their valuables out of sight, but the thieves broke in any way for two things: their auto registration and garage door opener. California, and most states I suspect, requires drivers to carry their license, registration, and proof of insurance at all times. Most drivers keep their registration in the glove compartment because you only really need it when requested by law enforcement. With this in mind, once these thieves saw the victim’s garage door opener clipped to the sun visor, they knew the last piece to their bounty was in the glove box.
They jimmied the lock, took the registration and the opener and headed to the traveling family’s home. For a thief, it doesn’t get much better than this. You have an address to a home you know will remain empty for a few days and you have access to the garage where you have privacy, thus time to gain access to the house. The thieves raided the house of its consumer electronics, jewelry, and other valuables. They even took the family’s second car from the garage; drove it around for a few days before leaving the late model Mercedes Benz parked in front of a neighbor’s house down the street.
Though much attention has been paid to identity theft, we can’t forget that the conventional thieves are still out there; and in this down economy, they are more creative than ever. To protect yourself from being victimized like this, here are some things you can do:
· Black out your address on your auto registration
· Lock your glove compartment
· Don’t leave anything in your car with your address on it
· When parked anywhere long-term (i.e. airport), either lock your garage door opener in your glove compartment, or take it with you
· If you have a GPS system in your car, don’t register “home” as a destination
· Let your neighbors know when you are going to be out of town for more than a few days so they can identify suspicious activity around your home.
