The following appeared in my local PD’s Police Blotter today: A resident reported their vehicle stolen during the overnight hours in the area of Garretson Dr. The unknown suspect(s) were able to gain entry via an unlocked door where the keys were left inside. The vehicle was valued at $52,000.00.
For several years, the news media have been reporting on thefts of unlocked cars, most of which had the key or key fob left inside the vehicle. And yet, some bone-headed people continue to engage in this lazy behavior.
Edited to add:
Am I correct that one’s car insurance will refuse to reimburse a policyholder if his/her stolen car was left unlocked, and with the key/key fob inside?
If the police can be called and the vehicle can be remotely disabled a few miles down the road, it works out quite well!
A family with a 13 year old had their child or young man and a friend sneak out of a reform school and take a vehicle like this and drive quite a distance at night and in to the following day. They stole from stores along the way. They were caught and are in legal trouble. But that’s just because they seemed to not put any effort in to not getting caught.
I think that very much depends on whether the insurance has that in the contract as an exclusion and whether or not the state’s insurance laws allow that.
Only if it is equipped with LoJack, OnStar, or something similar. And you get through to the police and/or the carrier quick enough. If you don’t notice for several hours who knows how far they’ll get. But the car will be dead somewhere.
I’ve heard many complaints in our neighborhood about vehicles being broken into at night, with guns and other valuables stolen.
Often times the cars are left unlocked with the valuables in plain sight, or at least available.
Of course, most of the time the garages are overflowing with…non-car related items…It seems rational to me to keep cars in the garage, but others may disagree…
Our neighborhood has 52 homes . Car hoppers found 17 unlocked vehicles . They got - 50 dollars out one - 3 company laptops with sensistive information - 3 guns - used the garage door opener and took 2 sets of golf clubs .
If you’re looking for a movie on this theme to watch, consider The Bling Ring
Based on a true story. It begins with a group of upper-class LA teenagers who break into parked cars to steal stuff they don’t even want. Just to see if they can do it. Nothing to it, at least one of the doors are nearly always unlocked. Later they extend this idea to breaking into celebrities houses. Not intending to steal anything, just to see if they can do it. Their method is simple enough. They watch the celebrity’s twitter feed to know when nobody’s home. As you might expect, eventually it all goes bad.
All the police could deduce was that the owners keys were used. There’s no way to determine if the keys were left in the car or they snuck in the home and stole them.
If you have ever taken a look at the largely useless and frequently bizarre Nextdoor website, that site provides ample evidence that there are a whole lot of Gladys Kravitz types out there, and they seem to watch (and complain about) almost everything that their neighbors do.
