Car break in - Moving forward

[AustinMRH]

My car got broken into. Well sort of. I am still getting used to the whole key fob thing and on occasion don't lock the doors. I have a fear of locking myself out, so I turned off the autolock. So somebody let themselves in my car and snatched my ipod, headphones(audio technician grade $$$), and GPS. Probably last Thursday and most likely at my part time night job. We've had problems with car window break ins and we have had a building break in but I park under a HUGE flood light on our property. We're located on a small industrial street backing up to a decent neighborhood, though with a buffer of sketch apartments. We've got a growing transient population in the area.

When I am at work, usually until rather late at night, I am carrying. So no chance my gun would be in the car. Boy am I glad of that. And when my gun is in the car(without me) it is locked away. But my electronics were not.

So obviously stings are for police, not regular people. But what about leaving the car unlocked again, with a video camera watching it from inside the building. If I catch the thief (I have a pretty good idea of which crackhead homeless lady it is) I scare them off and call the cops with my evidence.

Sounds stupid.

Maybe I just follow my dad's advice and chalk this one up to lessons learned and be more aware in the future.

Also, can any of the LEO chime in on the Pawn shop scene. I asked the APD person taking my statement and she said that everything gets entered into a database and gets cleared (30day hold) prior to sale. But lets be honest, do the shops really enter everything? I called the two closest shops to ask if they had any of the small ipod shuffles (~50 MSRP) and they said they don't sell them anymore, too cheap new. Plus, if a clearly homeless person shows up at a pawnshop are they really gonna believe they are trading in their personal GPS for 'grocery' money?

[Keith B]

Maybe I just follow my dad's advice and chalk this one up to lessons learned and be more aware in the future.

Good advice. Going forward, park in a well lighted area, take your electronics and other valuables out of the car, or hide them and all evidence they might be in there (mounting brackets, etc.), lock your car and take the keys. While some may break a window to get in, unless they see something to push them that far, they will usually move on to the next unlocked one.

[AustinMRH]

Everything was well hidden in the center armrest console, but not locked. Unfortunately the Console Vault folks don't make a Volvo vault, so I think I am going to. I bought a Gunvault Nano to bolt down in the trunk, but that is mostly for my firearm should I go someplace I cannot carry. The trunk would be a pretty big hassle for small stuff.

But yeah. Well lit. Auto Lock. And I mentioned to my boss getting a security camera (or a sign and a fake one).

[Pacifist]

Listen to your dad. Don't invite confrontation, avoid it.

[A-R]

Sorry to hear that. Mind sharing generally where this occured?