Good question. Too often I see people leave their vehicles on while they go about their business. I see it happen to older folks more than younger ones.
Just until last week, my neighbor’s maid or caretaker left her Nissan suv on next to my car as she went to care for my neighbor. I had to bring this to her attention but the funny thing was that she claimed to know it was on and that she wasn’t planning to hang around for long.
No surprise. I’m sure she did know that the car was running. She was just willing to chance that the SUV would not be stolen. I think it was an unconscious choice, but a judgement nonetheless.
I assume she did not turn the car off, but since she only took her credit card inside with her and left her purse in the car, the fob was probably in her purse anyway. Since the thief was never caught, it is not known if he got in the car to steal what he could or if when he found the car running, he just took the whole car…
I see folks start the car or leave it running while they do something else like buckling up the kids, like loading the groceries, and even when pumping gas…
Yeah he was a 20 year repo man (and great fabricator, learned a lot from him on that aspect, I taught him a lot about the newer vehicles of the time, and transmissions) in the Detroit area, he lost about 1/2 of his friends over the years from the same line of work and finally moved to Nashville, for other reasons also, but after his son (grown) was almost shot while on a repo with him, He had multiple repo trucks shot at with plenty of see through and unwanted new windows here and there— He got out of the game in mid 90’s, he also built custom Harleys and did paint and body, we could work on about anything at our shop, even did a clutch from a big 2.5 bucket truck out side in the snow once, hey money is money… Did a few brakes on some big Top kick size box trucks out in the paring lot… lol
Your Lexus may not do that (not sure though), my 2023 Toyota will turn itself off in 60 minutes if it picks up nothing happening inside the vehicle, like open/close a door, put in gear, ect… I can look up the details needed lol… You just can’t leave it unattended, or with small kids or dogs (animals) in it over an hour or it will turn off… So if eating lunch at work, in an hour no more heat/AC, get back to worky time…
That explains something that happened some years ago. In the middle of the night I heard a horrible loud screeching sound coming down the street outside. So I stepped out the front door to see what it was just moments after a tow truck stopped across the street with the tow operator out adjusting something about the hookup to a car he was towing. I didn’t say a word, merely stepped out to look. And he pulled a gun, pointed it at me, and harshly said to get back inside my house. I most certainly did!
Of course, I called the cops because of having the gun pointed at me. Cops came but the guy was gone by then. I don’t recall hearing anything more about it.
Yeah, nobody wants probably the 2nd most expensive item they bought to be taken away, no matter the reason… It is a VERY dangerous job… I would never bother a repo man while doing a job, he may have just been shot at and on high alert… You would be too doing it… If you ain’t scared, something mentally wrong with you…
Reminds me of what another friend said when asked if he was scared, he said have you ever hear of the Ho Chi Minh Trail? Well there is a less famous Dewey trail out there also…