How common are car break ins?

[klmrocks]

Originally Posted by UrbanLuis

That is really gross. And yes I remember kids breaking off mercedes signs and putting them on their chains. I never understood that one. LOL I can't believe you brought that up, we are clearly around the same age.

It was a thing. I remember seeing these older boy and teens with them. I did not really understand what they were until later. Come to think of it my barbie sports car and jem and the hollagrams sport car toys made in the 80s have those hood things too lol ( which did break off). Good thing they dont make a lot of cars with those things anymore. I am sure they cost a lot to replace. If I wanted to fix the scratch on my mercedes it would cost around a $1000 ... so it would not be worth fixing as with me driving it as a new driver it is going to likely get scratched. For $1000 bucks I can ride the bus everywhere for at least 10 months. So driving in the city is not really all that practical on a day to day basis for most people. Kids under 12 ride for free too now.

[klmrocks]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

Yeah. I had high schoolers coming to school wearing hood ornaments they'd taken on chains around their necks. Middle/upper middle class school.

The kids in the lower socioeconomic schools would steal the whole car.

LOL... I can't imagine how furious I would be it someone did that to my car. Crazy. I really think due to smart phones and increased amounts of cameras in many urban places this stuff must be happening less then 20 years ago.

Last year. I had this odd experience where this man knocked on my door. I wont open the door unless I know who it is. I will just speak through the mail slot to figure out what they want and only open it if I actually am interested in talking to them. Unless it is someone delivering a package that needs a signature my response is I am not interested. It was this man and my father and husband where also in the house so I opened the door and this man was warning me that as he was walking down the street he noticed another guy walk on to my drive way and start touching underneath one of my cars. He said he wanted to warm us just in case he has tampered with something. I thanked him for letting us know, but was unnerved by this.

My husband was mad that I opened the door. My dad thought it was odd and wondered if this guy was just using this story as an excuse and was trying to scale to the home to see if someone was home and was trying to break in. I have actually heard of this happening. People using BS stories while trying to break in to homes. They will work as a team. One person will knock on the door to determine if anyone is home. If someone answers they give a BS story or try and force themselves in. In other cases if no one is there they call the other people and break in while one person is a look out. Really odd experience. It is times like this that remind me I am really glad some of my neighbours are retired and home during the days and watch out for stuff like this while the rest of us are at work.