Break ins and such

[River_Annarchy]

So today my mom got the day off work so she could celebrate her not-quite-birthday (her actual birthday is tomorrow) and when she and Aydon (her boyfriend not related to me) went down to go off wherever at around 8:30 AM turns out the van had been broken in to. Along with several other vehicles in the parkade. This wasn't your nice "oh ill pop the lock" break in this was "HULK SMASH PUNY WINDOW" break in. All the took was a little kit for if the van got stuck anywhere, a pair of Oakley sunglasses, the pink slip for the van (the police wrote up an accident report so no worries there yet) and the swiper plushee that was on the dashboard. WHO IN THE HELL TAKES A SWIPER PLUSHEE. I figure it was some jerk teenagers just trying to find a laugh who thought "hurp derp swiper no swiping ill take this". Now they're off to a pick and pull to find another door so we can replace the window without dealing with insurance.
So how many other people one the LRR forums have ever had a vehicle broken in to?

[Jamfalcon]

I've been lucky enough to have never had to deal with a break in, probably thanks to both me and my family always driving older vehicles that aren't really appealing targets. One of my friends however had his car's window smashed a few years back. Someone went up his street and broke into almost every car on it (about twenty houses worth) and took all of the radios and anything of value in them. It was a pretty big mess from what I heard.

[Dibria]

Never had a vehicle broken into but in my final year of university I was working a late shift (22:00-04:00 if I remember correctly) while my housemate threw a party. Turns out she just propped the living room door open so she could see the front door and then left the door unlocked for guests to walk through.

I had the ground floor room, to get into my room with the front door left open took about three steps. I got home at half four to find I no longer had a computer.

[River_Annarchy]

Well my own car is a really old car. An 80s Chevy Sprint with a nice supply of country tapes. The only thing of value in that thing is the jumper cables and the engine parts itself.

[Alja-Markir]

This is why I don't bother to lock my vehicle doors, or much else for that matter.

1) The odds are highly in your favor that you will almost never be robbed or burglarized. Yeah, it happens, and yeah, we all know someone who has had it happen to them, but then again there's also only five degrees of seperation between most people and Kevin Bacon, so that doesn't mean much. You're more likely to die driving to work than you are to be robbed parking in a public lot.

2) Locks don't stop determined thiefs. If someone wants into your car or house bad enough, they get in - no ifs, ands, or buts. If some idiot is going to burglarize my car for a pair of sunglasses or a radio, or even a wallet, I'd rather just leave the doors unlocked for them and not also lose my windows in the process.

3) Locks are an inconvenience. It's just one more thing to worry about, one more wasted trip back and forth when you go to get the thing you left in the back seat and then find the doors locked and need the keys.

Now, a key for ignition? Makes sense, limits who can easily drive your car, prevents people from borrowing it without you knowing. A determined thief is just going to hotwire it, but a key to start the car has a lot of reasonable uses - keep kids / friends who are drinking / annoying roomates / whoever else from using the vehicle. But locking the doors is just dumb.

~Alja~

[River_Annarchy]

I like to think that burglars pity me to much to break in to my car. And on the off chance they do i expect they'll pity me to much to steal anything when they see the box full of country tapes. Generally i never lock the door mostly because its so old only the most desperate thieves would take it.

[Drinnik]

I'm sorry to say, but with a car break in, there isn't much you can do except learn and move on. If anything really important was taken, then I'd call the police, but chances are there won't be much evidence to catch who ever did it. You might get CCTV in the area, so it could be worth it to go back and check if you can see any cameras.

[Dibria]

The odds are highly in your favor that you will almost never be robbed or burglarized.

That depends on where you live, while I was living in Selly Oak not only did I have my computer stolen but I can count without too much thought at least 3 other cases of people I personally knew well having things stollen. It's an area with a high student population which means lots of laptops etc. and houses that are poorly maintained in the middle of a major city, burglary will happen.

I remember looking out my window in my second year and spotting a guy stood in rear access path next to our kitchen which was used to store our bikes, I opened the window to ask what he was doing and he said brazenly; 'sorry mate, I was just going to nick the bike, sorry.' he then walked off shutting the rear gate behind him.

If you live in a safe place and you don't need to bother with locks that's great, but if you park somewhere you do need them and are out of the habit you'll have trouble. Locks aren't about stopping determined thieves, they're about stopping opportunist thieves.

[Alja-Markir]

Yes, yes, mind your circumstances. You're less likely to be killed by a great white shark if you live in Kansas, and much more likely if you live next to the Great Barrier Reef.

You can find an exception to any rule. That doesn't devalue the overall probability. Locks on things like car doors are, in general, of very little value. Bike locks and laptop locks make more sense, but vary with place.

The difference is in ease of stealing. It's easy to steal a laptop or a bike at an urban university. It's a lot harder to steal a car or burglarize a house (without getting caught anyway), hence locking them is less reasonable and more of a waste of time.

Pretty much the only things I lock are my car's ignition and my wireless data access points.

*shrug*

~Alja~

[River_Annarchy]

The amusing part of when they broke into the cars is that Aydon heard a car alarm go off as well as banging but he just thought it was nothing. The more you know eh?

[sdhonda]

This is why I don't bother to lock my vehicle doors, or much else for that matter.

1) The odds are highly in your favor that you will almost never be robbed or burglarized. Yeah, it happens, and yeah, we all know someone who has had it happen to them, but then again there's also only five degrees of seperation between most people and Kevin Bacon, so that doesn't mean much. You're more likely to die driving to work than you are to be robbed parking in a public lot.

2) Locks don't stop determined thiefs. If someone wants into your car or house bad enough, they get in - no ifs, ands, or buts. If some idiot is going to burglarize my car for a pair of sunglasses or a radio, or even a wallet, I'd rather just leave the doors unlocked for them and not also lose my windows in the process.

3) Locks are an inconvenience. It's just one more thing to worry about, one more wasted trip back and forth when you go to get the thing you left in the back seat and then find the doors locked and need the keys.

Now, a key for ignition? Makes sense, limits who can easily drive your car, prevents people from borrowing it without you knowing. A determined thief is just going to hotwire it, but a key to start the car has a lot of reasonable uses - keep kids / friends who are drinking / annoying roomates / whoever else from using the vehicle. But locking the doors is just dumb.

~Alja~

This is generally true, but as Matt has pointed out before, the point of basic security isn't to directly deter theft, but to make the crook just move on to the next car/house/pocket.

[sdhonda]

Better than a lock: just don't leave anything of worth in your car. The only thing I keep in mine is a booklet of burnt CDs, insurance papers, air gauge, scrapper and probably a few gas receipts.

[Dutch guy]

..snip.. A determined thief is just going to hotwire it, but a key to start the car has a lot of reasonable uses - keep kids / friends who are drinking / annoying roomates / whoever else from using the vehicle. But locking the doors is just dumb.

~Alja~

*Hippie pot smoking voice*
Hotwiring is SO 1980 dude
*end hippie voice*

Just about any modern car can't be hotwired. They have immobilizers using a transponder in the key. No recognized transponder code? No start. Even my 1997 Fiat has an integrated immobilizer. (Albeit a little too well integrated. Sometimes it won't even start with an original key. And if you lost the keys and need to change the barrel you need to change the whole Engine Management Computer too because they're code linked and won´t operate without the correct partner.)

That does not mean a determined thief can´t steal a modern. It´s only a maximum 8 bit encryption normally and even a brute force `try every combination` attack only takes a short time. (And there are even reports of 'code interceptors' that simply receive the remote locking signal as the user opens his car, then brute force THAT to find the correct combination. This is especially fun for key-less start vehicles as it means you don't even need a real key. Just something that sends the right signal)

[River_Annarchy]

*Hippie pot smoking voice*
Hotwiring is SO 1980 dude
*end hippie voice*

Sadly my car is from that decade, does that mean its still in to hotwire it?

[Metcarfre]

I think one's insurance company would have an issue with one leaving their car unlocked, rightly or no.

Sounds like we need Matt and his ICBC wisdom.

[River_Annarchy]

I think one's insurance company would have an issue with one leaving their car unlocked, rightly or no.

Sounds like we need Matt and his ICBC wisdom.

Well odds are if your just leaving your car unlocked then theres probably nothing worth taking in it and even if something IS taken its not worth going to the insurance company over.

[Alja-Markir]

The point I try to make about security is this:

Effective security isn't about dealing with every possible threat. Effective security is about efficiently protecting against the most important threats.

The best security is invisible. The best security is passive. The best security isn't physical, but conceptual. The best security not only never fails, but is never needed.

I'm a firm believer in very strong security. But strong security isn't a padlock on every door, a camera on every wall, and a gun in every house. Strong security isn't standing on constant guard and jumping at every shadow. Strong security isn't strong suspicion, nor strong armor, nor strong words, nor strong retribution.

Strong security is knowing what trouble to reasonably expect and having a plan to effectively deal with in when it does happen. Strong security is not having to worry, and being able to take life in stride. Strong security is making things work cleanly, simply, and efficiently. Strong security is the product of a strong person, not the other way around.

~Alja~

[River_Annarchy]

After this what id do is replace the windows with something shatterproof, guy goes to put a rock through it and the rock goes right back at his face. You'd go down a while later to find the jerk bloodied and unconscious

[Metcarfre]

This one time I thought my truck had been broken into, but nothing was stolen. Then I figured out it was the landscaping guys at my work who had probably hit a rock with their weedwacker and sent it into my back window.

My parents only started locking the doors of their house a couple years ago - when their van got broken into.

[guidance]

Not to sound rude or anything but at least your guys had a reason to break shit. In my neighborhood 5 cars got their windows smashed in with bricks around 2 nights ago, one of which was my grandfather's car.

[Matt]

I can't speak with any authority about insurance rules, because I'm not in insurance.

I suspect that leaving your car unlocked is a violation of your insurance policy pertaining to car theft, but I think the valuables within your car are actually the domain of homeowner's insurance, not auto insurance. I can't say for sure.

What I can say about auto break ins is that you should never leave anything visible in your car.

Small change, a sweater, empty pop cans, I've heard of cars broken into for all of those.

As for security, yeah a lock's not going to stop a determined theif (obviously). The point of a lock is to make the effort or risk involved in breaking in more trouble than it's worth.

At worst, it's to make your car a less appealing target than the car next to yours.

-m

Obviously none of the above comments should be taken as indicative of the position of my employer. They are my opinions alone.

[Psyclone]

Some teenagers broke into my family's car when I was little. They didn't steal anything, but they keyed the doors and stabbed the passenger and driver's seats with a knife. I have no idea why, but one of the stabs went all the way through the seat and out the back, so they must have had a pretty big knife.

The repair company actually had to remove the seats for a few days to fix them, so there may have been something wrong other than the stabbings. I was too young to understand insurance, though, so I have no idea if the repairs were covered or not.

[leapy]

Well that's not good.

I run a 1994 Peugeot 106 with a gaping hole where the radio used to be (it was my brother's car, he had installed a CD player and took it with him when I took it over. I never bothered to get a replacement) Nobody's going to steal my car for a joyride and I make sure that I keep anything that might be tempting to a sneak thief out of sight, either in the glove compartment or in the boot.

However, if I had a nice car and I lived where it was legal I'd probably install the "South African option". A pair of flame throwers that could be activated by the alarm. ^^

http://www.cracked.com/article_17242_7-safety-products-for-incredibly-paranoid_p2.html

[River_Annarchy]

The worst part is that the cops didn't even finger print anything. And the cop just sat in his van while everyone filled out the paperwork

[Metcarfre]

Oh right, I remember that my car got broken into while my wife and I were away on our honeymoon. Left the door open. They jacked a flashlight and some other stuff... basically phoned the police so there's at least be a file for any insurance claim. I mean, what are they supposed to do, put surveillance on every parked car?

Finger prints? Really? Somebody's watched too much CSI.