Nothing turns people off like redundancy of information and we’ve been writing about this issue for a long, long time but the tide does not seem to be turning in favor of the law abiding. So we post this cautionary message.
Timothy sent in the attached picture of a friend’s Prius, breached and rummaged through while it sat in a parking garage near Todos Santos in Concord recently. Timothy says his pal was “really pissed” about this and we can’t say we blame him. It’s not fun.
We’re seeing thieves take everything from cans of tennis balls to guitars and, in one recent case, they smashed a car window to access a company laptop computer even though the car was – and the owner ruefully admitted this was true – unlocked.
There are bad people out there and they are surfing parking lots and garages and driveways and checking out cars for potential goodies and they can get inside your car and away with your precious belongings in seconds so you might consider taking steps to prevent this from happening to you.
We don’t have to repeat what those measures might be, do we? We don’t want to be redundant.
Not all crimes are preventable, but vehicle burglary is. If you don’t get it, thanks for driving up the insurance rates. Thieves will always exist, but they’re opportunists. Take the opportunity away from them, or get ripped off. The choice is yours. I’d be more angry with myself for being foolish enough to leave something in my car – in plain sight. Whatever happened to personal responsibility and accountability?
Redundantly yours…
@Danielle – You learn this lesson fairly quickly if you drive in any major American city. We learned it early on, quickly stripped the work car of anything of value and hung a sign on the dash saying: “There’s nothing to steal in this car.” They stole the sign, broke a window to do it. It’s a sport for some people.
Please continue to report these incidences. It’s helpful.
A car robbery happened to us about a week ago on a Friday night around 3:21 am. I have RING security system and could see activity at that time on the RING website camera video. Not enough light in that area near the car to id the suspects. But could see activity. The car was unlocked as no real valuables were in it and better unlocked than paying for window replacements and insurance hikes as it was an easy target. They took a large golf umbrella and 8 golf clubs that were OLD.
They drove up the hill and decided to throw them in the oleander hedge on my neighbor’s property!! Ugly. Oh, and they also stole a red leather glass case with owners expensive frame/prescription in them. To note: he had to have glasses replaced immediately and found a terrific place in Berkeley that made a new pair in One Day. Just an FYI. I suggested to the police to get more cameras at the intersection near our house and they agreed! And as a side note, my car was the victim of a smash and grab. I was parked at 2:30 pm near the sec. floor entrance to Macy’s in the new garage. Glass all over middle seat and ground. They only got a small pkg. of an ugly blouse I was returning to H&M! Ha! Police said they will break in for almost nothing. SO NO PKGS. LEFT in car regardless of useless content.
@Rae – We’re on it! What town are we talking about, streets if you care to give them. Lots of folks getting hit lately, apparently.
Whoever rummaged through my 1984 Buick Riveria and stole my Dionne Warwick’s Greatest Hits 8-track cassette tape last year should face the chair!
Well, expect a `redundancy` of these break~ ins, as these are redundant.criminals! Yes, prop 47,.which the voters were tricked into voting for ( it was named the `Safe neighborhood and Schools.act` by Gov. Brown and AG Kamala Harris) released all criminals from jail that stoled less than $950 worth, and wont even punish anyone who steals under that amount.. Criminals know it, and are emboldently active because of it. Law Enforcement is frustrated as anyone they catch is basically re released to the streets alnost immediately. In SF the police dont even arrest people for these crimes, but only `ticket` them.
Hence the 80+ cars a day.that are broken into rhere. And its not getting better folks…and btw: they will break.into your car even with norhing in sight, so they can pop your trunk and steal whats there.( even a spare tire ) PS: thoroughly read the propositions you vote for, and.don’t believe the title that politicians name it!
Rae, I cannot believe that happened on your very quiet street! Did they throw your stuff into Connie’s old property? Scary! Lafayette isn’t what it used to be. 😥