IS GPS safe on the car window in Houston? (Pearland: new construction, living)

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by rtrip

Just by a friction mount. Best $20 you'll ever spend.

I once had my car broken into and they missed the gps that was hidden under the passenger seat

My vehicle suffered a smash & grab in front of some apartments on Fountain View in 2004. He got about $10 worth of CD-R music that I had illegally downloaded from Napster out of the center console, a pair of $20 "Wal Mart Special" sunglasses, a tire pressure gauge, an Altoids tin full of quarters and the warranty papers on my tires from NTB out of the glovebox (along with some other useless junk), but he left the Browning Citori and the Sako FinnBear .30-06 that were under a blanket on the floorboard and the Glock 21 under the driver's seat.

I think that the lesson to be learned is that anything "hidden" in the glovebox or center console is a goner if someone smashes your car window.

[Mom2Feebs]

I got this in an email, so take it however you want. It is confirmed as "partially true" on Snopes.com. It did manage to scare the crap out of me, though, and I don't scare easily.

************************************************** ********

A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that someone she knew
had their car broken into while they were at a football game.
Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium
and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the car
included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been
prominently mounted on the dashboard.
When the victims got home, they found that their house had
been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been
stolen.The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house.
They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door
and gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the
football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled tofinish and
so they knew how much time they had to clean up the house.
It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the
house of its contents.

MOBILE PHONE
I never thought of this.......
This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her
names on her mobile phone after her handbag was stolen. Her
handbag, which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet...Etc... was
stolen. 20 minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone
telling him what had happened, hubby says 'I received your text asking
about our Pin number and I've replied a little while ago.' When they
rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already
withdrawn.The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text
'hubby' in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he
had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.


Moral of the lesson:
Do not disclose the relationship between you and the
people in your contact list. Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby,
Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc.... And very importantly, when sensitive info
is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back. Also, when
you're being text by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to
call back to confirm that the message came from them. If you don't
reach them, be very careful about going places to meet 'family and
friends' text you.
* I never thought about THAT! As of now, I no longer have
'home' listed on my cell phone.

[Sampaguita]

Originally Posted by Mom2Feebs

I got this in an email, so take it however you want. It is confirmed as "partially true" on Snopes.com. It did manage to scare the crap out of me, though, and I don't scare easily.

************************************************** ********

A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that someone she knew
had their car broken into while they were at a football game.
Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium
and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the car
included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been
prominently mounted on the dashboard.
When the victims got home, they found that their house had
been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been
stolen.The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house.
They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door
and gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the
football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled tofinish and
so they knew how much time they had to clean up the house.
It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the
house of its contents.

MOBILE PHONE
I never thought of this.......
This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her
names on her mobile phone after her handbag was stolen. Her
handbag, which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet...Etc... was
stolen. 20 minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone
telling him what had happened, hubby says 'I received your text asking
about our Pin number and I've replied a little while ago.' When they
rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already
withdrawn.The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text
'hubby' in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he
had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.


Moral of the lesson:
Do not disclose the relationship between you and the
people in your contact list. Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby,
Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc.... And very importantly, when sensitive info
is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back. Also, when
you're being text by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to
call back to confirm that the message came from them. If you don't
reach them, be very careful about going places to meet 'family and
friends' text you.
* I never thought about THAT! As of now, I no longer have
'home' listed on my cell phone.

Oh, good grief. More things to worry about. Thanks for posting though. DH laughs at my concerns regarding security/safety. I'm going to email this to him.

As to the original question - I never leave the GPS in the car but I am guilty of leaving the bracket on the window.

[ShelbyGirl1]

LOL...You can't win! My GPS is built in, but I do have a radar detector. I thought I was being smart in,not only stashing the unit, but taking the holder off the windshield too....until a police officer friend of ours pointed out...thieves are looking for the telltale circle marks on the windshield. Guess you have to be able to think like a thief!
I have always worried about the garage door openers... Our Ins. info is in the glove box...with address...steal the car, he has all the info in front of him!

[Sampaguita]

Originally Posted by ShelbyGirl1

LOL...You can't win! My GPS is built in, but I do have a radar detector. I thought I was being smart in,not only stashing the unit, but taking the holder off the windshield too....until a police officer friend of ours pointed out...thieves are looking for the telltale circle marks on the windshield. Guess you have to be able to think like a thief!
I have always worried about the garage door openers... Our Ins. info is in the glove box...with address...steal the car, he has all the info in front of him!

I've wondered the same thing. We have our ins info in the car as well and used to leave the garage door opener in the car (we have a detached one now & we're not currently using it to house the car). But I always worried about that one - DH & I frequently argued about it. He thought I was watching too many Criminal Minds episodes.

Do most people take their garage door openers in/out of the car with them? What about insurance & car registration papers?

[Kandy]

In a word. NO.

[ShelbyGirl1]

My garage door openers are intigrated into the car...So, I have no choice...and doesn't law say you have to have the Ins. cards in the car? I guess, one could carry a set on them...but I have enough crap in my purse!

[Wysiwyg]

ok my next project is to put a fake door opener in the car and concealing the real one. that way the car might come back to my place, fake door opener disables my car infront of the house.

[ShelbyGirl1]

Originally Posted by Wysiwyg

ok my next project is to put a fake door opener in the car and concealing the real one. that way the car might come back to my place, fake door opener disables my car infront of the house.

LOL..Sounds worthy of a patent!

[Sampaguita]

Originally Posted by ShelbyGirl1

My garage door openers are intigrated into the car...So, I have no choice...and doesn't law say you have to have the Ins. cards in the car? I guess, one could carry a set on them...but I have enough crap in my purse!

Yes - as far as I know law says we're supposed to have the ins cards in the car. In other states I've lived, we've been required to have the registration papers in the car as well. I agree - I have way too much crap in my purse/diaper bag to worry about making sure I always have the proper papers with me.