ljptexas

Got this from another forum..

1. Some people left their car in the long-term parking at San Jose while away & someone broke into the car. Using the information on the car's registration in the glove compartment, they drove the car to the people's home in Pebble Beach & robbed it. So I guess if we are going to leave the car in long-term parking, we should NOT leave the registration/insurance cards in it, nor your remote garage door opener.
This gives us something to think about with all our new electronic technology.

2. GPS.
Someone had their car broken into while they were at a football game. Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium & specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money & a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard. When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked & just about everything worth anything had been stolen. The thieves had used theGPS to guide them to the house. They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door to gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish & so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.

Something to consider if you have a GPS - don't put your home address in it... Put a nearby address (like a store or gas station) so you can still find your way home if you need to but no one else would know where you live if your GPS were stolen.

3. CELL PHONES
I never thought of this.......

This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her cell phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag, which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet, etc., was stolen. 20 minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says "I received your text asking about our Pin number & I've replied a little while ago." When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn. The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text 'hubby' in the contact list & got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.

Moral of the lesson:

a. Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list. Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc....

b. And very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back.

c. Also, when you're being texted by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came from them. If you don't reach them, be very careful about going places to meet 'family and friends' who text you.

*PLEASE PASS THIS ON

* I never thought about the above!

As of now, I no longer have 'home' listed on my cell phone.

Even if this does not pertain to you....Pass it on to your family and friends.

Barb in Louisiana

Sometimes I wish I was back in the old west, where you could shoot someone stealing from you without worrying if you would be convicted of a crime. Oh, but I would miss Wal Mart, Joan's and Hancock Fabrics and my local Quilting store. What was I thinking? Guess I will have to figure out how to follow these suggestions.

Seriously.....it is astonishing how easy it is to get information about all of us. These thieves will probably never serve any time, because, after all, they only stole our stuff and didn't kill us. If they are caught, they will get suspended sentences because of the nature of the crime and because violent offenders are already overcrowding the jails. But, we will still have lost many things we paid for and valued. If you do defend your valuables, you do risk being convicted of a crime yourself. It seems the only thing we can do is just what this note says, don't put anything on your GPS or phone that will lead them to you. Now, to start changing things in my phone. I don't know what to do about the info we are required to keep in the car. Any suggestions?

quilt1950

Your first example happened to my sister years ago. Her car was stolen from work.

Our GPS has a password, and should thieves happened to figure it out, HOME is our local police station.

I'll have to think about the third. My DH is listed as my ICE number. I guess thieves could figure that out.

nativetexan

Hey, I'm paranoid and do all that already. don't even leave mailed coupons in my car since they have my name and addy on them.

kathidahl

Good info...I am going to change my HOME on GPS to the Village Hall which is a block from my house. Thanks.

Jingle

We have to be inconvenienced because of the thieves. It is easier to steal from others, than to get a job.
Most of that doesn't apply to me. We don't have a smart phone, either.

tessagin

We don't have a GPS. We know where home is. If I ever text DH it's to forward a photo. Since it's the holiday season, I'm very aware of my surroundings more than ever. I also carry. When I walk to my car (and I see this often), I don't hit the unlock button on my remote until I get right to it. As soon as I open the door, before I even sit in the seat, I lock it. We got rid of our landline/house phone a long time ago. We never used it. The only piece of paper with any reference to our address, which is billing (p.o. box) is for our insurance. Our home address is not on it. If the police need to see our registration, I can show them a photo of it from my phone. I don't have addresses in my phone other than e-mails. Also when we buy an appliance, the box it came in is not put into the dumpster for pick up or on the curb for heavy brush pick up day. DH takes it to work and puts it into his dumpster. If you have to put the cardboard on the curb, turn the boxes inside out and duct tape them together. Also a word of warning. I was at my neighbors' house and a guy pulled up in a van. He brought a box with a bow on it. The box was stenciled with the words "Pretty Posies". The truck had a hand-painted posy on it. He came to her door with clipboard in hand and the box. Asked for her to sign and he could help her put the flowers in a vase as an added feature to their business. She said "no and he could just put the flowers on her stoop. He told her he really needed to do this. She still said no and asked why he didn't have his tags on his van. They fell off. She informed him that people who knew her knew she was allergic to flowers and he could stick 'em where the sun didn't shine. He got really nasty. He didn't know I took a photo of his van and him. She pulled out her 38 and that was all it took for him to move on down the road. This lady used to be a former police woman and she knows how to use it. They did get the guy and his accomplices. This was a couple years ago but "Tis the season"

CookyIN

Sad, sad world that we live in. I realize that there have always been thieves, but it seems that nowadays there are so many more ways for them to rip you off. And sadly, it seems that far too often they go unpunished as it's easier for places to just pass the losses onto the paying consumers rather than try to track down and prosecute the thieves.

Anyway, thanks for the heads up and the timely reminders with the holiday hustle and bustle coming up.

LITTLEOLDME

Not only my car doors but my home doors (double doors)are always locked night or day, sad world that we live in now when we have to be on guard of the dishonest all the time.

Sewnoma

This is part of why I have dogs. As a kid we lived in a bad neighborhood and so we had 3 big dogs. Neighbors got robbed more times than I probably am aware of (I KNOW at least 3 times in 5 years) but we never got bothered. In my adult life, I've owned two houses and always had at least 2 dogs; at both of my homes, my next-door neighbor has been robbed despite both houses being in decent middle-class neighborhoods.

Anybody who opens my garage door now is going to find three dogs waiting! I don't know if they'd actually bite anybody, but most robbers, upon hearing multiple dogs barking, aren't going to try to figure it out. They'll move on to the quiet house next door!

Plus I just like dogs. They're some of my favorite "people". ;-)