O/T car got broken into

[michael hurd]

Woke up late this morning, and decided to take a long walk with the girlfriend and our dog today. It was really sunny out, and I told the girlfriend to grab my magnetic clip-on sunglasses out of the car when she went back inside to get hers, while I had the dog on the leash, talking to a neighbour across the street.

She calls out from across the street " were you in the glovebox and left it open?", "there's stuff all over the seat!" I say no, and head over to take a look. I had left my passenger side window down approximately 1 1/2" the night before.

Someone had either really skinny arms, like a child / teenager or used a stick to trigger the power locks. After throwing the safety check papers, and all the owners manuals and the like on the floor, they opened the center armrest/console and rifled through there, leaving a mess on the front seat. After determining that there was nothing missing ( I rarely keep anything of value in it ), I had to clean up the mess.

They didn't even take the $ 2.00 or so in change out of the armrest, so I am thinking it was a kid. If they had looked on the floor in the rear under a jacket, they would have noticed that there was a 110 piece tool kit there.

The real kicker: It was right in front of our apartment, you will see if from our living room area window, the windows were open, and I didn't notice any noises after watching National Treasure with some friends. ( up until at least 3 am )

Less than 20 feet away from the house, and not more than 45 feet from where I am sitting at the computer. Good thing that I didn't hear a car door opening, and noises coming from my car, or I would have had to walk downstairs and ask them to remove themselves from my automobile before I had to call an ambulance for them!

[Coytee]

----------------

On 5/29/2005 1:39:23 AM michael hurd wrote:

or I would have had to walk downstairs and ask them to remove themselves from my automobile before I had to call an ambulance for them!

----------------

Sorry about your event. For idiots like this, I'd sometimes rather an ambulance not be a choice. Perhaps just a herse.

Though I don't REALLY mean it that harsh, I live WAY out in the boonies. We get trespassers, vandels, thieves, poachers, druggies, counterfieters, trash dumpers and one person was even kind enough to drop off a dead body on the back side of the farm (dumped on side of road)

So I'm pretty insensative to these idiots in general and LOVE to see any of them get some retribution.

[Audible Nectar]

Must be in the water this weekend.

Upon arriving to work Friday, I see a white convertible Mustang in my usual parking area....and LOTS of broken glass. The owner apparently PO'ed somebody, because EVERY panel of glass was broken out. Front windshield, both front and rear windows.....even the side mirrors and front headlights were taken out.

There's theft, and then there's vandalism, and then there is "sending a message". I'm betting this was the latter.....not even Comedy Central's "Distraction" has cars with so much damage

[Speedball]

The kids at night tagged a mag light from the glovebox one time.

Man, I never dreamed of doing stuff like that when I was a kid or the parents would "hang" me.

[franczyk]

Damn, and Michael Moore had me thinking there was no crime in Canada.

[ironwoods]

The vandal(s) might know you don't have a gun.

Anyways, good to hear there was nothing of value taken.

[boom3]

You have my sympathy, and I am sure you hear the wake-up call... Crackheads, and now in rural areas, those addicted to Oxycontin, will steal anything-repeat anything-to buy the drugs. Oxycontin addiction and resulting theft is rampant in many rural areas of the U.S. Even in areas where people never locked their doors...and to their shock, they find that it's *not* "drug crazed hippies" (a favorite bogeyman that long predates OJ's or Scott Petersen's use of the phrase) but the family next door, or middle-aged people they've gone to church with. The Oxycontin jones is just that strong.

When I park my car, even here at home in the Redneck Riveria, I never leave any money in the pull-out tray. Don't care to have my window smashed for a dollar's worth of coins.

[skonopa]

Thats bogus!

Reminds me when I was hiking along the river a few years ago. I left my wallet in the glove box, since I did not want to lose it along the trail. It was pretty hot that day, so I left the windows cracked as well.

Some a$$hole, probably using a coat hanger or some such to get the lock undone through the cracked-open window, got into the car and stole my wallet. Needless to say, I went ballistic! Since this was before I had a cell phone, I went home to call police, as well as my credit card company. I got home to find there was a message on my answering machine from the manager of a supermarket that was near the river. They said they found my wallet in the parking lot. I went there to pick it up, and thankfully, it was mostly intact (i.e., my driver's license, amusement park season pass, etc, was still there). They did still my VISA credit card as well as the $30 or so dollars I had in there. I did call the police as well as the credit card company. Turned out they charged gas to the card shortly aftwards. I've never heard if they got caught or not. Since then, I now always completely roll up the windows and make sure everything is completely locked up when leaving my vehicle (as well as making sure nothing valuable is in plain site).

Sad thing is that somebody else attempted the same thing just two summers ago. There was a number of cars parked along there, and a couple of guys was attempting to get into one. Well, somebody else saw them and called 911 on a cell phone. Luckily, there just so happened that police was already in the area on a routine patrol. The cops busted them in the act! Turned out they already stole a purse out of one of the vehicles, which had something like $400 in it, and was trying to get into another vehicle.

[oscarsear]

Some yips rifled one of cars in our garage one nite. The door was accidently left open. The police said guys like this go to the nearest gas station to try and use the card. If so then they spend spree..if not they go looking for another. We keep only 2 cards active, one a credit the other a debit. Debit cards are harder to use stolen as they have user codes required for transactions. We had no loss...just a gut punch from the underpinnings of society.

[Duke Spinner]

i live in the country ....

it don't help ....

trucks constantly broken into, at least once every 6 months

since i threatened the nieghborhood kids, like, i don't care Why your in my yard .....

it's gonna hurt just the same .... we are now down to once a year

last time was genuine crackheds ... they drove 40 miles, to steal the change outta both trucks ...

needless to say ..they broke windows outta both

[Duke Spinner]

Forgot ..

the one Genius ...dropped his probation papers in my truck .........

................. ..............

BWAAAHAHAHA .....

[michael hurd]

bsafirebird : one Genius ...dropped his probation papers in my truck So did ya just have to pay the person a visit?

[michael hurd]

It is a good thing that Gm decided to put the trunk release on the run circuit of the ignition switch in my car, otherwise they would have been rifling through the trunk, and probably stolen my gym bag.

Boom3: I hear ya on the Oxycontin, they call it Hillbilly Heroin, and the usage of it in our city is on the rise, as well as Percocet usage. I know someone that was beaten up pretty bad in their house, and their prescriptions for Percs and T-3 were taken.

[Duke Spinner]

Visit ....

YES... !

accompanied by 2 Stueben County Deputies .....

[iammikey]

The one thing that some thieves target is the garage door opener. If your car is ever broken into and you have a removeable garage door opener, then make sure you check if it's still there. Some thieves return during the work week and enter homes through the garage door to rob the house instead of the car.

If you find your garage door opener is missing, then make sure you reset the garage door opener codes.

I learned this after I saw an unfamiliar van in my neighbors driveway about 10 years ago when my neighbors were on vacation and their garage door was open. I called the police. It turned out their car was broken into at the airport and they stole the garage door opener and got the address from the registration. It was nice to see a K-9 at work.

[jheis]

I had an Alfa Romeo spyder for a while when I lived in San Francisco. I always left the doors unlocked and nothing of value in the car because it lived on the street and I didn't want the top slashed.

Every couple of weeks I'd find all the papers from the glove box dumped out on the floor and passenger's seat. Fortunatly, the vent window latches were just glued to the glass, because every once in a while I'd find them broken off by a dim bulb thief too stupid to try the door handle before prying open the vent window.

Fact of life in the City.

James

[dodger]

Sorry to hear that.

It's not just the City - you hear more about crime in the City because of Population Density.

Also, if it makes the papers, they sell more.

A lot of people keep their title and registration in their glovebox. Not smart. Or the hidden magnetic box house key. Some find the key, break into the car, get the address, they're in.

Some find the key, follow the vehicle home or have a duplicate made then put it back in place.

Gee, I wonder how they got in. Or if you have nice new locks with the new keys, chances are that there is a serial number on the key. It's not a serial number, it's the cut code to make a key without having one to copy.

If you have keys with the number, have duplicates made and put the ones with a code in a lock box.

If you have an expensive house, you will see locks on the market that are 5 pin or 6 pin. For just a few dollars more, the 6 pin usually has more security features and are harder to pick. If that's the choice of break-in

[ironwoods]

----------------

On 5/29/2005 9:47:42 AM skonopa wrote:

Thats bogus!

.......I went there to pick it up, and thankfully, it was mostly intact (i.e., my driver's license, *amusement park season pass*, etc, was still there). ----------------

** Not in order of importance, we may assume?

[dodger]

From an importance list, anything you don't want to lose quickly - don't leave it in your glovebox.

If you know that you're going somewhere and won't want to take your wallet or purse - leave them home. Only take your license and registration, plus needed money.

If you are going in the water put them in a plastic watertight bag that will fit an inner pocket of your suit.

And if you have a debit card, please don't use your or a family member's birthdate, address, anniversaey as your PIN. Some Insurance Companies are starting to not cover losses if those are used.

And as convenient as it may seem, the slide your card through check-outs as those in Grocery Stores, where your gender isn't even checked - contact your bank or card company and let them know that THEY are making it too easy for fraudulent use and YOU should NOT have to pay for their decisions.

Most banks pay a maximum of three percent on savings. YOU pay 7 - 21.98 percent interest on your card, $20.00 - $40.00 for a bounced check plus what you're charged by the people you gave the check to, late fees of $20.00 - $40.00 even if one day late. Then it all snowballs to Over-limit fees, possible collection costs.

Figure it out, who is against Bankruptcy, yet who adds the amounts that can put people there? Use credit like poison.

[picky]

Hi, Michael:

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. There must have been a full moon that night....our son's car was parked in the street in front of his home that same night and someone drove by and shattered the driver's-side, rear door window for no other purpose then just to break it. They didn't even go in and look around. The poor kid had to replace a burned-out refridgerator last week, and now this! Some people just plain suck!