Auto Burglary Prevention Tips.
Auto Burglary
Your on the way out the door from work, headed home to start your second job of taking care of the family. Your walking out of daycare with a child in your arms. Your headed out the door from your home, coffee in one hand, keys in the other. You just grabbed a bite to eat at a fast food place on your way back to the airport. Your making a quick stop at that specialty store that sells expensive gifts like the one you're getting your spouse for tonight’s anniversary dinner; while you take your kids to sports practice,,,,,,,,,,,
At each one of these very common scenarios, you could be greeted by a pile of broken glass on the ground & you’re minus one car window .
You have just been the victim of the most common crime in the city, a car burglary.
Let’s put this crime into perspective first, before I discuss a few things that you can do to reduce your risk of being a victim.
”Car burglaries are often attributed to the homeless population. I’m not convinced that the homeless population accounts for a high percentage of the break-ins. Actually a high percentage of auto burglaries come from individuals who specialize in just this crime. Individuals (let me refer to them as criminals from now on) who know the low risk involved.”
Types of Car Burglars.
Criminals who often live within walking distance of the crime. Your neighborhood criminal, who if you think real hard, you can probably name him.
Criminals who break vehicles because the opportunity presented itself at the moment. They were not there to steal from your car, but your actions made it impossible for them to pass up the easy grab.
Then you have the professional car burglars. They break cars for a living and they make a great living at it. They finance their homes and their lifestyle off stealing from our cars.
Let’s talk about the professional car burglar.
We as victims, will actually have more success preventing this type of auto burglary than the other two types. Even though they make the most money, are more skilled at the actual crime; they are predictable.
About 15 years ago I was having a phone discussion with a victim in California. He was hit here in Miami Beach while on business. After he vented his anger on me, I let the cat out of the bag, so to speak. I tossed some facts back to him. One fact was the conservative loss of approximately $1.4 million dollars in auto burglary merchandise from victim's cars. This occurred over a 12 month period in a geographical perimeter of approximately 2 x 1/2 city blocks.
Well, within 3 hours that “Cat” had made it from the victim in California to the mayor of Miami Beach, down the crap tunnel to my boss. I was told my job was to catch criminals, not answer the phone. The phone cord in my office was remove from my desk phone for a while.
South Florida as a whole, is broken down into territories, so to speak.
Certain groups of criminals only work their assigned areas.
They have tourist routes, hotels and rental car agencies written down to memory.
They keep track of incoming & outgoing flights from certain countries.
They often use more than one vehicle to work a victim leaving from or in route to an airport.
One leader of a theft group took me about a year to catch. His first name is Carlos.
Carlos employed men right out of state prison who needed jobs and money. Carlos paid them $500.00 cash a day, yes a day! Carlos was their training officer. He would pick them up each morning, hand them their cash right away. See, Carlos will make a lot more than $500.00 each day, but the criminal trainee will only get $500.00 regardless of how much Carlos makes. A slow day for Carlos was $3,000.00 to $4,000.00. A good day for Carlos could exceed $12,000.00.
After a month or two of training, Carlos would cut the trainee loose with his instructions on territory rules and would make the trainee a tool like this one.
Auto Burglary Tool
This tool opens 21 models of vehicles through the keyhole; as fast as you can open the doors with the key.
This group of criminals rented nice single family homes in the Orlando area only to store stolen property in. Task Forces are set up in the Orlando area to deal with the high volume of this type of crime.
Here is how you make Carlos and his buddies have a slow day.
Eat at your hotel before you load the car for the airport. Don’t stop along the way to the airport to eat or eat after you get to the hotel and have removed your luggage.
When you purchase merchandise from a store, drive it directly to your home or hotel.
If you do have to stop along the way, leave the car parked where you can see it.
If you are going to stash a gift/bag out of sight, do it before you get to your destination.
The trunk is not a safe place, under the front passenger seat is better.
Use the camera on your cell phone to snap photos when you buy the items, right there in the store is fine, in the car as you leave. Photo the receipt. If you are hit, this can be useful later.
For the neighborhood criminals keep this in mind.
If you can, add lighting to your parking space at home. Motion sensor lights are cheap; get the brightest one. Here’s a cheap light, easy to install.
If you have the money, place a video camera on your parking space. Arlo and Nest Cam provide great video and are easy to install.
Don’t leave anything visible or slide it under the seat.
If you are hit, make the police report anyway; regardless of the loss. Here is a link to Safelite Autoglass. They will come to you & replace the glass.
If what was taken is of no use to the criminal; then it is probably discarded nearby.
Take your own photos of the damage & location for insurance purposes.
Car burglars like their chosen profession. It’s not just the payoff, it’s also low risk and when they do get caught, most of the time the victim does not follow up in court. The case is dropped before it ever really gets going. Go to court, force the criminal to take a plea.
Enforcement will reduce the numbers, but this requires resources that most police departments will not assign to this crime.
Thank you for listening ,,,,,