Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
There are many possible reasons for your experience. Maybe the thief was interrupted, or got spooked, and left before rummaging through everything.
It's very difficult to know exactly what someone is looking for these days. Your belief that "nothing was taken" may be completely wrong. They may have used a smartphone, photographed your documents and credit cards, and left. Or read a Garage Door Opener code, and plan to return when they see the vehicle is not in the driveway.
There is much more to be gained that way than taking a few dollars of cash (although I don't know of a single thief who wouldn't take cash when in the process of burglary).
Or perhaps they wanted to steal the vehicle itself, and were looking for keys. You don't know, and probably have no way of knowing, what was going on in the thief's head at the time; all you can think of is simple conjecture. Since perhaps you are not a thief, you are at a disadvantage.
Were it me, I would consider any event such as you describe as a successful Identity Theft and as a successful operation to copy or obtain future entry to your home, and react accordingly. Watch statements, especially in the future (a seasoned Identity or Credit Card thief will wait many months before using what they learned: if it doesn't work, nothing lost, as you are certainly not the only target, if it does, Jackpot!).
Change locks, and any entry codes, including Garage Door remote codes and any means to "save the hassle" of using keys you may have enabled on a Smartphone or Bluetooth device or fob.
Interesting angle. I'd much more suspect it was a heroin addict or some other kind of junkie trying car doors and finding ones accidentally left unlocked to scavenge for change and cash money. Operating under the cover of darkness, they may have missed the cash, but taken coins...
Since the address is public record, the license plate and vin are easily read and copied down, and assuming the OP doesn't leave credit cards, keys, etc in the vehicle, about the only things I can see that would yield unique information would be the insurance card, since that offers a policy number. Not sure why anyone would keep more unique info in their car anyway...
Looking for spare keys and to scan the garage remote is viable... Though I can't see a thief wanting the exposure to try to actuate and get the broadcast data stream on their scanner. Slow and methodical perhaps makes sense... Know the brand, then scan another day to grab codes, then break in another day. But how do you practically prevent that besides not using a remote?