Anti-Car Theft measures in other large cities

[Merc63]

I hadnt' heard of that, either. Anyhow, when I was still living on teh west coast, all of this was mentioned as common sense. if you google it as "vehicle break in statistics"

vehicle break in statistics - Google Search=

You find that it's considered common sense not just in metro areas around the US (and the world) but everywhere.

Many vehicle break-ins avoidable | CJOnline.com

I had a car broken into and the stereo stolen when I was living outside of Bremerton, Washington. They did more damage to the car than if I had left it unlocked. Hate to say it, 'cause you never know who's reading, but because of that, I don't leave anything valuable in the cars, but I've also never locked the car doors at home since. In the 10 years I've been here I haven't had a problem with it at the house. I usually lock it up at a store or when parket away from home (though not always at work). I'd rather them see it unlocked, open the door and find nothing than break in and damage the car and find nothing... And a number of my cars have been convertibles, where locking the car is actually kind of pointless.

[850_branded]

This is all good stuff. That said, whenever I read these types of discussions, I usually see a pretty significant piece missing from them. That is this: people are attracted to shiny things.

What am I talking about? The dressed-up, souped-up cars, with the big rims, the chrome trim, all that jazz. Sure, those who can afford to fit 24's and the like under their wheelwells might also (or should have good enough sense to) be able to pay for an upgraded security system, but even that won't help all the time. If thieves see something that looks like something of value is inside, they're probably more likely to target those cars. And if nothing worth taking is inside, they might well just try to take the vehicle itself.

The only reason I even bring this up is because it never ceased to amaze me the number of folks i worked with when i was living out there who put so much time and energy into "chroming their rides out", doing all this dress-up work to it. Many of those people were the same ones I used to hear complain about people trying to break into their cars, people having broken into their cars, or people straight-up stealing their cars. First question out my mouth was this: "did you leave anything out in plain sight?" The next one was this: "before you put all that shiny stuff on it, did it ever occur to you that by doing all that, you might have just made your vehicle a prime target for theft or vandalism?"

Just figured I'd throw that out there, too.

[atariwhizkid]

Some things I've noticed living in the city:

- When I lived in the high traffic (foot and vehicle) area of Station North, I saw at least one car with its window smashed out on a weekly basis. When I moved onto a street that's not a thoroughfare, I have seen just one.
- More cars are broken into in the nice looking areas than in the more rustic neighborhoods for reasons already discussed.
- Thieves will almost always pass by a car that has nothing in sight. They are not going to bother opening glove boxes or consoles, get under seats, etc. Smashing a car window usually gets noticed by someone, so the thief only has a few seconds, not minutes, to get something and get out. My girlfriend's car got broken into in front of my old Station North digs and all the thief took was a stereo cable, despite the fact that there were 15 CDs in their cases sitting right next to it. That seems to indicate to me that they were thwarted by oncoming traffic or some passerby.

[westsideboy]

I guess the car breakins are a unfortunate side effect of big city life. They certainly do happen out here in Cumberland, but when they do the police actually send a warning to residents of the neighborhoods warning them to LOCK THEIR CAR DOORS, because that is still not a universal practice out there.

We feel very confident in my town just locking my door and not leaving a box of gold coins on the seat.

[Merc63]

Originally Posted by 850_branded

This is all good stuff. That said, whenever I read these types of discussions, I usually see a pretty significant piece missing from them. That is this: people are attracted to shiny things.

What am I talking about? The dressed-up, souped-up cars, with the big rims, the chrome trim, all that jazz. Sure, those who can afford to fit 24's and the like under their wheelwells might also (or should have good enough sense to) be able to pay for an upgraded security system, but even that won't help all the time. If thieves see something that looks like something of value is inside, they're probably more likely to target those cars. And if nothing worth taking is inside, they might well just try to take the vehicle itself.

The only reason I even bring this up is because it never ceased to amaze me the number of folks i worked with when i was living out there who put so much time and energy into "chroming their rides out", doing all this dress-up work to it. Many of those people were the same ones I used to hear complain about people trying to break into their cars, people having broken into their cars, or people straight-up stealing their cars. First question out my mouth was this: "did you leave anything out in plain sight?" The next one was this: "before you put all that shiny stuff on it, did it ever occur to you that by doing all that, you might have just made your vehicle a prime target for theft or vandalism?"

Just figured I'd throw that out there, too.

Well another way of looking at it is, do you want to go through life dressed as a vagrant beggar so that vagrant beggars won't try to mug you? I build and own shiny custom cars (though not ones with 24" chrrome wheels) and other than the one car in front of my house one time, in 30 years of custom car ownership, I've not had a problem.