Why lock your vehicle?

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Thats right, I feel its a bad idea to lock my car up-most of the time. I see too many people get their cars screwed up over a thief trying to steal a car stereo or whatever. At work once, 6 people in one night had their car stereos stolen from their vehicles. The only thing that scares me is that some jarhead could plant some drugs or a gun in my car without me knowing it. The newest trend here in central ohio is that thiefs are using a spring loaded center punch to easily break out a car window.
 
After having windows broken on two occasions, once they stole a couple bucks of change, the next about 20 (admittedly high quality, I taped them myself) audio tapes, I certainly agree with you, and ceased locking them.

The Police did nothing, didn't even want to look at the car, just issue an incident no so that my Insurer had a reference.

So they passed a law making it illegal to leave a car unlocked, as it "incites thieves to steal your property". It's a couple hundred dollar fine.
 
I leave mine locked becuase at times I carry a firearm. I just keep valuable stuff out of sight and keep a stock radio.Theives dont want a stock honda radio.
 
Mine is unlocked right now because I'm at home and there aren't any thieves living on my street. There were thieves but they've moved away thankfully...the police wouldn't help us either. When I'm at work and it gets dark out I roll up the windows but don't lock the doors unless I see creeps hanging around. During the day I'll leave the windows down and the sunroof in the back seat since I keep my valuables in the back hatch. The people that walk behind my workplace aren't too observant so they won't notice that the locks are up but they'll notice if the windows are down. Put on a set of chrome valve stem covers and boom they are gone that day...

Shannow, I can't believe there's a law against leaving your car unlocked! Is it enforced? I'd tear off somebodys head if they tried to write me a ticket for that. I leave my car unattended and running with the drivers door open all the time at all hours. I even do this at the airport...the airport security sees my pizza uniform and that appears to be good enough for them.
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Steve
 
If I'm parking in a bad neighbourhood, I leave the glove compartment open, and toss some of the papers on the floor. That way, it looks like someone has already been in there, and there's nothing left to take.
 
quote:

Originally posted by oilyriser:
If I'm parking in a bad neighbourhood, I leave the glove compartment open, and toss some of the papers on the floor. That way, it looks like someone has already been in there, and there's nothing left to take.

Hahahahaha..I love it
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why not have a junk yard radio and have it dangling by a wire on the dash.
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quote:

Originally posted by Al:

quote:

Originally posted by oilyriser:
If I'm parking in a bad neighbourhood, I leave the glove compartment open, and toss some of the papers on the floor. That way, it looks like someone has already been in there, and there's nothing left to take.

Hahahahaha..I love it
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why not have a junk yard radio and have it dangling by a wire on the dash.
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So, you guys have seen my truck already, have you!
 
locking your car keeps the honest people out. That is about it.Or hopefully makes your car a harder target well not really.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Steve S:
locking your car keeps the honest people out. That is about it.Or hopefully makes your car a harder target well not really.

Sometimes all you have to do is make your car a harder target than the next car down the street and the ******* will move onto the next car.
 
quote:

Originally posted by tweeker43:
so, uh, where is your car right now?
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Actually, in a guarded parking structure. Perhaps I should clarify that I keep my car locked at all times.
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My point was that keeping the interior cleaned out at all times, with nothing even in the trunk, makes the car undesirable for someone looking for something to pawn off for drug money or whatever.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Matt_S:

quote:

Originally posted by tweeker43:
so, uh, where is your car right now?
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Actually, in a guarded parking structure. Perhaps I should clarify that I keep my car locked at all times.
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just wondering... i'm just a couple hours north (saginaw for work, caro for home) and thought i'd, say, pay a visit or something...
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so, you don't keep a massive cd collection in your car, huh?

my truck was robbed one morning of about 12 cd's, a walkman, and my dilbert hangy thing. i'd left it unlocked that night. between the police and the insurance company, it turns out that crime can pay.
 
quote:

Originally posted by tweeker43:
just wondering... i'm just a couple hours north (saginaw for work, caro for home) and thought i'd, say, pay a visit or something...
grin.gif


so, you don't keep a massive cd collection in your car, huh?

my truck was robbed one morning of about 12 cd's, a walkman, and my dilbert hangy thing. i'd left it unlocked that night. between the police and the insurance company, it turns out that crime can pay.


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No, no CD collection. It's too bad about the break in. I've had that happen to me before. It's a horrible feeling to see your window broken out and all your stuff gone. I suppose that's part of the reason I'm so particular about keeping the car clean now.
 
Your insurance company won't be too pleased if they find out you left your car unlocked. With my car's factory alarm, it obviously has to be locked for it to set. If my car were left unlocked, somebody could just pop the hood and pluck out my HIDs (or airbags). They'll take them anyway, alarm or not, from the outside, if they're motivated. Very grizly operation, digging out HIDs without opening the hood.
The SUV parked next to me got broken into because they saw stereo equipment and couldn't resist. He had an alarm which they disabled in a couple of seconds. I always make sure there is nothing visible and that the Club is on. Then I hope someone doesn't just break in out of curiosity, or a pro looking for HIDs and airbags.
 
The problem with leaving the car unlocked is you're susceptible to crimes of opportunity. In other words, someone may walk past it, pull the handle and if it opens, he goes to town. If not, he moves on.

With my car, I leave very little inside to steal. I have a $3 pair of sunglasses, Altoids, my work ID and a pen. The work ID is mostly obscured in a nook in the center console. I doubt they'd want a stock radio, either, as the anti-theft features make them too difficult to move to another vehicle.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Matt_S:
The problem with leaving the car unlocked is you're susceptible to crimes of opportunity. In other words, someone may walk past it, pull the handle and if it opens, he goes to town. If not, he moves on.

With my car, I leave very little inside to steal. I have a $3 pair of sunglasses, Altoids, my work ID and a pen. The work ID is mostly obscured in a nook in the center console. I doubt they'd want a stock radio, either, as the anti-theft features make them too difficult to move to another vehicle.


so, uh, where is your car right now?
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some insurance companies won't cover you if your car wasn't locked and your stuff gets swiped.

someone robbed 6 cars at the chrysler foundary where my brother works. 5 of the cars had broken windows, my brother's car just had stuff stolen. although they did pull the satellite radio antenna out of the roof liner.
 
We have jeeps with soft tops (most of the year for the wife: hardtop) ..there's no sense in locking the doors. If the thief knew enough, he could just pull the zelcro and unzip the rear window and save us the slashed fabric ..but we'd rather not take the chance. We've had our ashtrays stolen. Apparently the thief doesn't want to just empty the change and leave it. They ditch them down the street a bit. We finally stopped replacing them.

The only time any of our cars are locked is when shopping stuff is in them and we're going into another store.

There's very little serious crime in Pottstown. About 1 drug related murder a year. The #1 reported crime is bike theft ..where low lifes get caught on the other side of town and use them to get back home. There are also organized bike theft rings. Our underclass is rather passive.
 
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