Last week’s poll asked about what you refer to your animals as (‘pet’, ‘companion’, etc) being that a recent study showed how calling your animal a “pet” and referring to yourself as an “owner” led to worse treatment for the animals. The overwhelming majority of respondents noted that they still called them “pets”.
This week’s poll comes to you thanks to a recent notification/reminder from the Apple Valley Police Department about securing your car in the evenings to avoid thefts/damage:
Overnight April 28 and 29, 2011 Apple Valley residents reported 11 incidents of thefts from vehicles and two reports of vehicles stolen. These occurrances happened in two different areas of the city, 13100 blocks of Hannover Avenue and Hallmark Court and 100 blocks of Belmont Road, Chaparral Drive and Hidden Meadow Road.
In two cases the vehicles were locked, parked outside in the resident’s driveways and windows were smashed to gain access. Most other reports indicated that the victim’s vehicles were unlocked. Residents report that their vehicles were gone through and items were thrown about inside the vehicle or on the driveway/lawn of their own or adjacent property. In three cases a purse/wallet was taken but found nearby minus cash and credit cards. It appears that the suspects were only interested in certain items and discarded other random property. Other items taken include laptop computer, gym bag, Ipod, and a garage door opener. In one case a resident’s vehicle was left unsecured in the driveway of the residence and the garage door opener in the vehicle was used to gain access to the garage and subsequently into the house. If you have to park vehicles outside of a garage, please remember your garage door opener. If if is removable, take it in at night. If it is a programmable garage door opener, be sure to make the door from your garage into your home as secure as possible. Lock it and consider installing a deadbolt lock for added security if you don’t already have one.
While I keep my car in the garage in the evenings, I know that plenty of people can’t or don’t. Do you ensure that your doors are locked and windows in their full and upright position? Do you keep valuables out of sight including garage door openers? Have you ever been the victim of theft/vandalism while keeping your car outside? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on below and then vote on the sidebar as well.
After you do both of those things feel free to check out our expired polls in the archive or read through the previous posts about polls here.
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May 8th, 2011 at 11:01 am
We are a household of many vehicles. The newest vehicle (mine, of course) is in the garage. The most current vehicle needing repairs (i.e. transmission) is in the garage as well. We also have a vehicle for sale, Mustang, along side the driveway. My 17 year old’s vehicle is in the driveway as is my husband’s truck. When the older two still lived at home, we had two other vehicles in the driveway as well. They are all locked. Are valuables secure? That depends on if the 17 year old remembers to get her Ipod, backpack, lacrosse bag, etc. out of the vehicle. Oh yeah, we also have a 72 MG Midget stowed in the garage for future rebuilding. My husband hoards vehicles.
May 8th, 2011 at 6:19 pm
I prefer to park in the garage, but I rarely am able to. I’ve never been stupid enough to leave anything of value in a parked car, even when I was a teen (though granted in 1985 there wasn’t much to leave). Only once ever has my car been broken into, someone stole the radio. Most people that do that stuff though are complete idiots. When they stole the radio the cut all the wires. I had installed the radio with a harness connector and they cut the wires out the back of the radio, making it nearly useless. Morons.
One thing I have done is I’ve replaced my outdoor garage lights with motion sensitive lights. They automatically turn on at dusk and when there is no motion they actually are fairly dim. Any motion though and the go to full brightness. Keeps the energy use down and dissuades the youth. Someday I’ll find one of those IR USB cameras for sale used somewhere and I’ll stick it up but not hook it to anything, but I’ll make it obvious that it is there.
Otherwise if they want it, take it. I got insurance.
The garage door opener thing is probably a good idea. I work in the garage a lot during the summer and with people driving around, I suppose they might see the tools and such and gain some interest.
May 8th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
I just don’t leave anything in my car. I’ve got a factory radio and would never upgrade. No CDs or electronics, no change that isn’t in the ashtray where it can’t be seen, nothing but dog toys. I even try and remember to make sure the blanket in the back doesn’t look like it is hiding something.
I’ve toyed with leaving the doors unlocked so that if they did want to take something, or look at something, they wouldn’t break a window. But I’m afraid someone would use it as a toilet or die in it or something.
May 8th, 2011 at 8:59 pm
I keep the cars in the garage all the time. I don’t even like putting my garbage out the night before it’s picked up.
I do remember back when I was an apartment dweller though it was actually somewhat recommended to just leave your doors unlocked. I lived in a pretty crappy apartment though.
May 8th, 2011 at 9:23 pm
Once a thief gains entrance into a garage, the house is easy pickings, for several reasons, one of the main ones being he doesn’t even have to bring tools to break into the house: the house owner supplies them in the garage. It’s a forty dollar fine in my apartment building if you leave your garage door open, and I think that’s more than fair. Once they can get into the garage, they can break into each apartment at their leisure.
We always remember to bring in the “clicker” at night, but one car stays outside, out of necessity. It’s a pretty crappy car, and we obviously have nothing anybody wants. Maybe that’s naive, but being able to afford nice things that other people can envy has a definite down side. (And that is in NO way defending thieves. People worked to earn something, they have the right to know it’s safe.)
May 8th, 2011 at 10:04 pm
We’re careful to make sure the cars are in the garage every night. The only thing in my car right now are a few old CD’s, a pack of gum, gas receipts, pencil, reusable grocery bags, window scraper, broken umbrella, old tennis shoes, extra set of gloves and a hat and salt & grit from this past winter. Doesn’t look like we’ll be able to clean our cars out until June.
May 8th, 2011 at 10:17 pm
I park my car in the garage at night. During winter, I usually leave the car doors unlocked, since I have trouble with the lock and don’t want to be locked out when I return to the car. It’s a generic car from the mid-1990s with little to take. I lock the glove box (insurance information, and hence, my address, is in there) and take the garage door opener with me (or else leave it at home).
The only time someone stole anything from my car was when I lived in another state. In the first neighborhood (rapidly going downhill), someone smashed the window and then the steering column of my 1982 Buick (even then an old car), and flipped a toggle switch to drive it away to a city 4 miles away, where they abandoned it. At the time, I lived in an apartment and left the car in a parking lot.
Sometime later I moved to the edge of a better neighborhood and rented a unit in a four-bedroom apartment building, which had one garage for each unit. One day I left the garage door open and someone stole my portable CD player or tape player.
May 8th, 2011 at 10:39 pm
the beater is in the driveway and the ‘new’ car is in the garage. the beater has 160,000+ on the odo and the only thing of value inside is my sunglasses. which may be older than awesomebill:)
bb
May 8th, 2011 at 11:44 pm
I always keep mine in the garage. However, when visiting others and leaving it on the street, I’m not very careful. I’ve left lots of things in it, including my wallet, cell phone, laptop, etc. I don’t leave that stuff out in the open, but I do leave it in there. I actually left my wallet in the car tonight at a softball game. It was on the front seat, underneath a jacket. It was also parked at a city hall with a number of squad cars parked just yards away. I thought it was a pretty safe gamble. My small town upbringing will bite me in the ass one of these days…
May 9th, 2011 at 7:49 am
My cars have been broken into twice in the last several years, in my driveway. GPS was the big loss. I’ve also my back window smashed out, as did everyone else on my street one night.
We don’t lock much, we have a corgi.
May 9th, 2011 at 9:20 am
sank,
a companion?
bb
May 11th, 2011 at 5:17 pm
I live on the other end of the world (Maplewood) and a friend recently had her car broken into while at a pub for happy hour. It did not appear that they took anything of value but just left a mess. When the cops arrived they went to the vehicle and immediately asked if she had a garage door opener. She said she did and looked in the overhead compartment where she keeps it and it was gone. They immediately dispatched squads to her place and her house had been robbed. i guess this has been a common occurance for a while. In fact the cops told her that many times when the thieves(assh**es) break in the car they will not leave anything out of place, they just want the opener and an address on a piece of mail or an insurance card and many peiople don’t even realize their car has been broken into until they get home and go for the opener.
May 11th, 2011 at 7:49 pm
When my son is home I insist that he bring his garage door opener in every night. He and my husband think I’m paranoid. Thanks for supporting me.
May 11th, 2011 at 7:52 pm
OH, and a toolbox has been stolen from our garage and a briefcase has been stolen from our car parked in the driveway. There was a camera inside which had our son’s high school grad pix in it. Assholes.
May 11th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
One thing I recall from Condo living days… those underground garages are rife with thefts, almost worse than leaving your car in the above ground lot.
May 12th, 2011 at 8:58 am
When I lived in an apartment complex in Burnsville with underground parking, my Honda motorcycle (crotch-rocket) was stolen from the garage. The apartment complex management took zero responsibility for it, and basically told me they didn’t care.
No cameras, no security, etc., just anybody with an opener can access any of the vehicles (or an idiot resident can just leave the garage door open).
May 12th, 2011 at 6:32 pm
Greg, a crotch-rocket?
May 13th, 2011 at 7:46 am
Mrs. Robinson:
“Oh yeah, we also have a 72 MG Midget stowed in the garage for future rebuilding”
Nice! I’ve got a 75 Spitfire wedged in between our SUV and sedan in the garage. While we aren’t always stellar on pulling valuables, the home does have a security system that would alert me to anyone popping in unannounced (as my friend found out last year picking something up, and thought I was joking about the alarm)
Again, we live in a pretty safe neighborhood, and on one occasion have left for a weekend with the garage door open. Nothing walked away, and our neighbors keep enough of an eye on each other that someone had closed the door.
May 15th, 2011 at 7:00 am
[...] week’s poll asked how you secure your car so as to avoid theft/vandalism. The obvious selections of keeping it in the garage or locked up tight were the top choices but [...]