The first thing you can
do: Don't leave valuables in your car
- particularly not in plain sight!
Are your valuables VISIBLE?
Don't be the next car burglary victim!
The last thing you need is to find your vehicle's window broken or
items missing.
We suggest taking these
simple but important steps to maintain your car's safety:
Don't
leave valuables in your car. That sounds like "common sense",
but drivers/passengers do leave items of value in plain view every day.
If you leave valuable items visible in your car, your car is
automatically a target.
If
you must leave valuable items in your car while out and about, place
items out of sight before reaching your destination or move them
inconspicuously. This includes packages, backpacks, gym bags,
GPS units, MP3 players, and so forth. Someone may be watching when you
put items under a seat or throw something over them. An opportunistic
thief is on the lookout for trunk-packing, and can break into your car
the minute you're out of sight.
If you can't take them
with you, at least lock the items in
your glove compartment (if capable of locking and large enough)
or your trunk (if you have one).
One reason SUVs and pickups are common auto-burglary targets is because
they don't have a "trunk" to hold valuables — the driver/passenger
generally just "hides" their valuables "out of sight". The thieves know
this, and do check glove compartments, behind seats, and under seats. It
only takes a few seconds to check all the "usual" hiding places.
Unobtrusively locking everything valuable "in the trunk"
(if you have
one) may be difficult when you're combining errands at multiple
destinations. Certainly avoid leaving packages or shopping bags visible
in your car — lock them in the trunk out of sight if you have to leave
packages in your car unattended. Plan your shopping/errands so that you
don't load your trunk until you are ready to drive to another
destination; never open a trunk, fill it full of valuables, close it,
and then just walk away.
Taking advantage of free home delivery offered by many merchants is one
way to protect your purchases while making your shopping far more
enjoyable.
Keep your car in good operating condition and always have plenty of gas
to get "there and back" (it costs no more to keep the top quarter of
the tank filled than to keep the bottom quarter-tank filled!); you
don't want to have to leave your car (and valuable contents)
sitting along the side of the road if that can be avoided.
Once home, unload your valuables immediately. Do not store valuables in
your car any longer than necessary, and certainly never overnight.
If your trunk can be opened from inside your car without a key,
lock
this feature when you are not in your car or have it disabled, if
possible.
Leave
no trace. Don't leave any "sign" that there might be
valuables "out of sight" in your vehicle, such as docking stations or
connector cables. Leave nothing in "plain sight" that might make your
vehicle worth "investigating" by a thief; not even loose coins or a CD.
Just leaving an empty docking station in plain sight, even if you've
taken the high dollar component with you, may end up costing you
hundreds of dollars to replace a broken window because the thief wanted
to check your car for "hidden" valuables. Very few auto break-ins are
"random" — the thieves see "something" in plain sight that's valuable,
or hints of possible hidden valuables.
If you have an after-market stereo/CD-player with a removable faceplate,
remove it. Without the faceplate, the unit is less attractive/useful to
many thieves, and harder to "fence". If the unit can be pulled, pull it!
Take it with you. Just covering a valuable radio (or ANY valuables in
your car) with something (like a blanket or towel) to hide it
will probably only draw thieves' attention.
Try
to park in busy, well-lighted areas.
Try to park in
well-traveled areas. Large anonymous streets are hit by thieves much
more often than parking immediately adjacent to a house or other
occupied building. On a busy street, day or night, "picking" your
parking spot is easier said than done — but try to choose a
well-lighted, visible, parking spot where there is lots of vehicular and
pedestrian movement when possible. Auto-burglars prefer breaking into
cars where they will not observed or attract notice, and choose their
targets accordingly.
Lock
ALL your vehicle's doors even if you plan to be gone for only
a brief time. Every year, we have items stolen from unlocked vehicles
where the owner was only going to be gone "just for a second". It only
takes seconds to steal your stuff! It's not at all uncommon for thieves
to walk down a row of parked vehicles and check vehicle doors to see if
they are unlocked. Don't leave any window open or even cracked
open, including vent/wing windows and sunroofs.
Set
any alarm or anti-theft device. If you have one, use it! Many
people believe that car-alarms no longer make a difference, but they can
be an effective deterrent to an auto-burglar, who most often chooses the
easiest target. If they have two cars to choose from, one with an
alarm and one without, they will likely burglarize the one without (unless you've left out valuables just too good to ignore!)
Locking your car and setting your alarm is just part of the solution.
Even if locked and alarmed, if you leave valuables (or the hint of
valuables) in plain sight, a thief may target your car, even knowing
it's locked and alarmed. But, without a clear prize in sight, a
locked/alarmed car will likely be bypassed for an easier "target of
opportunity".
Don't think your dark tinted windows will hide your valuables. Thieves
often use flashlights to see through tint, and after-market tint is
handy to keep all the broken glass in one "sheet" when they break out
your window (and toss the broken window into your back seat or
passenger seat to hide the evidence of the break-in from passersby).
Don't use "hide-a-keys". Thieves know the best places to hide those. But
remember, just "locking" isn't enough. Keep your car OFF the target list
of the thieves by keeping all hints of valuables totally out of sight.
If they see something tempting, they certainly can break in.
Mark your valuables!
As a last line of defense (not really to prevent theft as much as to
aid in recovery), mark your valuables. Recording serial numbers is
dandy, but nowadays many serial numbers are on removable "labels",
rather than "engraved" into valuable items. Also, a serial number
doesn't "directly" link you to your stolen property. We'd suggest
inscribing/engraving a "personal identifier" on all valuables.
Don't use your social security number (identity theft) — use your
driver's license (DL) number, prefaced by your DL "state", such
as "OK1217454928". With that marking, any police officer can trace your
valuable back to you, wherever it's recovered, and the chances of being
reunited with your stolen valuables is dramatically increased.
What to do if something is stolen out of your car
As soon as you notice something's stolen (or that your car has been
broken into) do not touch/adjust anything in, on, or around the car.
As soon as possible, call the police to report the incident.
Report Suspicious activity
If you see suspicious activity, report it to HPD at
852-3300.
Suspicious Activity would include:
* Persons walking up and down aisles of parking lots looking into cars
or trying door handles.
* Vehicles cruising
parking lots or streets at very slow speeds for extended periods while
observing parked cars.
* Persons making any
kind of mark or placing anything ON parked vehicles.
* Persons sitting in
running parked cars for protracted periods.
* Vehicles dropping one
person off while continuing to cruise the same area.
Please do your part and take the
necessary steps to avoid becoming a victim.
For more information please
email Patrolman Smith about this
article.
