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Thread: Lock your doors

  1. #151
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Madison, Wisconsin

    Lock up your car!

    As I noted in a previous post from June, on one of my jobs I'm the police in a fairly quiet village of 7300 people.

    About 0400 one morning last week, we received a report of several individuals possibly going through some parked cars in a neighborhood on the north side of town. We checked the area, the witness stayed on the phone, and directed us to the suspects as they were getting back into their car.

    Two 18 year olds and a 17 year old reported as a runaway, from the big city 20 miles away. As people woke up to go to work, many discovered that their UNLOCKED vehicles had been ransacked. By 0830 we had 18 reports of UNLOCKED vehicles that had been entered.

    Interestingly enough, the car burglars only kept small change they found in the vehicles. They didn't want anything of greater value because they didn't want to be caught with such items. A laptop was one item they found in an UNLOCKED car. They tossed that in somebody's yard a few houses down.

    In another case, they found a guy's rifle in a gun case in his UNLOCKED SUV. (an M1891 Mosin Nagant in 7.62 x 54R). That was also discarded in somebody's front yard.

    After the suspects were arrested the Chief put out a press release about it (which he rarely does) in ANOTHER (probably futile) attempt to get people to start paying attention to locking their vehicles. After the news story went out, in the next few days three more people called to report that their vehicles had been searched on Wednesday morning, although in those cases it seems that nothing was taken.

    It doesn't matter where you live. Lock your house. Lock your car. Don't leave your keys or garage door opener in your vehicle, locked or not.

  2. #152
    Hillbilly Elitist Malamute's Avatar
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    Oct 2013
    Location
    Northern Rockies
    It never ceases to amaze me how most people seem to be trying to make it as easy as possible for thieves to take their stuff with the least trouble.

  3. #153
    Quote Originally Posted by Malamute View Post
    It never ceases to amaze me how most people seem to be trying to make it as easy as possible for thieves to take their stuff with the least trouble.
    “I shouldn’t have to worry about someone taking my stuff! Don’t victim-blame me!”

    Sigh
    “Conspiracy theories are just spoiler alerts these days.”

  4. #154
    Hillbilly Elitist Malamute's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Northern Rockies
    Quote Originally Posted by HCountyGuy View Post
    “I shouldn’t have to worry about someone taking my stuff! Don’t victim-blame me!”

    Sigh

    No, one shouldnt have to worry, but this being the real world, you DO in fact have to worry about it, and its pretty dang simple to do.

    Not wanting to, or being too lazy, or choosing the be oblivious to actual real things around them because its unpleasant to think about is just nonsense. Makes as much sense as not protecting your dog against common diseases and fleas because one "shouldnt have to worry about that". We also shouldnt have to worry about heart disease, auto wrecks, house fires, and tornados. Ignore at your peril. Sometimes stuff like this makes me wonder how we got where we are as a species.
    Last edited by Malamute; 09-02-2018 at 09:21 AM.

  5. #155
    Last week I stopped by a Dunkin’ Donuts on my way to work.

    At the front of the building, parked in front of the doors, was a nice blue Mercedes unlocked, unattended and running with the keys in it. Not exactly a great part of town, and the drive-thru was quite busy. Inside only had one customer, so there’s a good chance that’s the driver. So I go inside.

    Me: “Excuse me ma’am, is that your car?”
    Female: “Yes, it is” (a small bit of attitude)
    Me: “How much are you wanting for it?”
    Her: “Excuse me?”
    Me: “How much are you wanting for the car?”
    Her: “It’s not for sale.”
    Me: “Oh, so you’re just giving it away then?”
    Her: “No?” (slightly confused)
    Me: “Well then you ought to go park it in a parking spot and take the keys out. I could’ve had me a nice Mercedes if I were a criminal”

    Lady gets her coffee and leaves in a huff.
    Last edited by HCountyGuy; 09-02-2018 at 09:31 AM.
    “Conspiracy theories are just spoiler alerts these days.”

  6. #156
    I used to not lock my car doors, but I had a very good reason. I had a Jeep Wrangler until about 5 years ago, one of the older ones with the soft top and the zippable plastic windows. The area where I live isn't particularly violent, but there is a pretty rampant drug problem, with the accompanying property crime. Three times, scumbags looking to ransack my car sliced my windows to get at what was inside. It was nothing of value, just some spare change or CD's, but the windows have to be bought as a set and each set cost just shy of an insurance deductable. After the third time, I removed any and all items from my car other then insurance, manual and registration, and stopped locking my doors. I never had another problem with sliced windows.

  7. #157
    Site Supporter
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    Feb 2012
    Location
    Madison, Wisconsin
    Years ago I was in the National Guard with a guy who drove a Wrangler in the summer and he didn't lock his for the exact same reason

  8. #158
    Banned
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Location
    Rocky Mountains
    During approximately the same time period that this thread was active the first time the Colorado Springs Police Department was looking for a 16 year old kid in connection with a series of home and car burglaries.

    One of the things that really stood out to me about this particular case was that the kid's name was released and they don't normally do that with juveniles. I suspect that they did it because they decided that this kid was dangerous and they wanted him off the streets.

    The connection with this thread is that they kept showing video on the news of this kid and his crew burglarizing cars and in every instance they just went down the street and tried car doors until they found one unlocked. They also found keys to people's houses. At some point this kid found a handgun with a WML. The news showed surveillance video of him going through people's garages with that gun in his hand using the light for a flashlight. I think in one of the videos they showed him opening the door to somebody's house from the garage but I don't think he entered the house.

    I remember thinking while I was watching the news story that first, I would not want to wake up with that guy in my house and second, because I know there's somebody like that out there and operating in roughly my neighborhood I would be a lot less likely to issue any kind of warning to any Intruder I might find in my home before engaging.

    But again the connection to this thread is that this kid didn't have to "break in" to anything. He got into the cars, he got into the houses, he got the gun because somebody left their doors unlocked.

    As I mentioned before I read a lot of threads on the internet by people who leave a dedicated gun in their vehicle and feel like the fact that they lock the doors absolves them of all responsibility when somebody like that gets ahold of it.
    Last edited by Cypher; 09-03-2018 at 02:12 AM.

  9. #159
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Erie County, NY
    I went to breakfast at the local upscale pancake house. As I was waiting for a table. A woman came in and said there was car running in the parking lot with no one in it. What to do, she said to the maitre 'd. He said he would get the manager. Then some idiot went to the car.

    On the news, you may have seen a woman in San Antonio chased by the law. She ditched her car and ran to another, carrying her baby - whose right side door was opened. She tried to get in but was swarmed by the law. I don't see why the car didn't just start up when she was running around it to get in. People freeze.

  10. #160
    Banned
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    Nov 2016
    Location
    Rocky Mountains
    Quote Originally Posted by Glenn E. Meyer View Post
    I don't see why the car didn't just start up when she was running around it to get in. People freeze.
    You answered your own question

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