Tip: Don't use your real address for "Home" in your GPS

[jbeletti]

Read this today on the Escapees forum and felt it good enough to share with everyone here.

I'll paraphrase:

Woman had her car broken into at a train station and her GPS and garage door remote were stolen. Thieves used the Home button on the portable GPS to drive to the woman's home. They used her garage door remote to open the garage and steal what they wanted. Her door from the garage into the home was locked - thankfully.

So - while I don't know if this story is even true, it seems plausible enough to me to do as the writer of this post suggested:

Don't use your Home address for your Home button on the GPS. Use a nearby address - this way, if they also steal your garage remote, at least it won't open the garage door where the GPS takes them based on the Home address. The poster says he uses the address to his police station which is 5 blocks from his house. Great idea. Probably best to use a street address that is near enough to home, but not in your neighborhood. This, to guard against the thieves driving around your neighborhood with your remote, trying all homes to open the garage door.

Related to this issue of vehicle break-ins, and I have fallen off track with this myself, consider NOT keeping your vehicle registration and proof of insurance in your car. These typically have your name and home address on them. I used to cut the name and address out of them. Guess it would be best to carry my proof of insurance in my wallet and cut the name/address out of the vehicle registrations and leave those in the glove box.

Here's to a safe 2009!

Jim

 

[jmgratz]

What interests me is some states require you carry your vehicle registration with you. I believe California is one of these. I have never understood the reason for this as the lawman can easily check the vehicle registration via the police radio. That is some interesting information. If you really want to get scared look at
http://www.bumpkey.us/Bump-Key-Videos-sp-1.html

You have a good solution with the camera at your house that you can monitor with your cellphone.

 

[irvin56]

What Next Will they show

They make thiefs out of anybody these days.
WATCH your babies, They will be training them to steal instead of walking.

Amazing what they teach on this nice www.

Does anybody work for an honest living these days. I know a few of us work????

bomb making, key bumping, drive by shooters. ETC ETC

What every happened to the old times, when you never locked up and left stuff around, and the good folks that would return them COMPLETE.
I for one miss those days. and I'm only in the 50 + age

keep safe folks and Hapy New year to you allNone

 

[ct0218]

Most states require that the registration be carried in the vehicle (or on your person). A lot of the states are like FL, which as a former law enforcement officer there I am quite familiar with, the records are not in the law enforcement agency's computer base. The DHSMV in FL maintains the registration records, and they are made available to all law enforcement agencies whenever possible. All major maintenance on the DHSMV computers is done at night and record searches are not available to any agency. Until recent years all record checks were done over the radio to the agency dispatcher, and on a really busy night it could take a long time to get a reply on, say, a DL check. Now most patrol cars have a computer in them, so radio traffic is not a problem--but access to the DHSMV computers still can be. I routinely wrote tickets to anyone that did not have a registration and the DHSMV computers were down.

 

[beardedone]

I was a policeman for 30 years and I never left my registration or insurance in the vehicle but rather leave them in my wallet. I also kept a copy of my wifes with me so it didn't matter what vehicle I was driving. She never drove my truck so no issue there. My kids do the same and if anyone is using our vehicles then we give them the reg and ins. papers. You are absolutely right about protecting your home address. Even now criminals will B & E the homes of deceased while their funeral is on so security guards have to be hired in some areas for the home. The good guys are losing!

 

[jmgratz]

Help out our Homeland Security. You can help monitor our borders and report suspicious activity at http://www.blueservo.com/index.php?error=nlg Check it out. Get involved.

 

[Jimmyt5]

Don't know now but years ago in Calif. in late fiftys you had to have your registration visible thru the windshield on the steering column in a little plastic holder

 

[creeper]

Here is my input on this. This is based on 21 years of law enforcement and investigating thousands of burglaries and car break ins and catching many of the offendiers in the act. The Crack epidemic was just wonderful.

1. I Have NEVER had someone break into the house of the owner they either stole the car from or broke into. Either via GPS or registration information. There is no shortage of empty homes during the day. They would rather do one in a familiar area to them.

2. Car break ins are usually crimes of opportunity. Home burglaries are are usually targeted and planned.

3. We've had many professional home burglaries and they use their own cars with switched plates. Stolen cars increases their chances of getting caught. They also specifically pick their target.

4. The GPS home button has helped catch many thieves and assisted in the return of the GPS. For Example: You catch a mutt on the street with a GPS.. Is this yours we ask... He says yes... Where do you live? UUUUUHHHHHHH..... Click the home button, you not have reasonable suspicion to hold the GPS and individual.

5. Car thieves are usually not burglars and burglars are not usually car thieves. For this reason... Car thieves are not punished like burglars... Even if you get caught with a stolen car it's usually dropped down to a joy riding or some other lesser crime and they know that. Smashing and grabbing is a Criminal Mischief and mostly a petty larceny. A burglary is often never lowered and it gets you on the violent felony ward of the state prison.

As far as registration and insurance goes, many states require they be left in the vehicle. Copies of those items will not suffice in Most states. Hand me a copy and at minimum you're getting a ticket. At most I'm ticketing you and towing your car.

The DMV system in many states in not tied into your insurance company, therefore you need a original paper document that says you have insurance. We keep ours in our wallets because our insurance company supplies more then one copy of the insurance card as do many companies.

A home alarm system will often limit the amount of stuff stolen from your house. When they break in they know they have at least 10-15 minutes before the cops show up, if at all. This gives them time to go to the master bedroom and take your wife's jewelry box, then grab some easy to sell items.

One of our local pros would do the following: Cut the phone line that is conveniently placed at waist level outside the house, then he would pull the meter cutting the power to the house. He would also cut the wire to the alarm speaker which is more often placed inside.. He would then take his time ransacking the house.. All during the day and no car info or GPS needed as he targeted the house.

You have better odds at hitting the lottery then someone breaking into your car and using your GPS to burglarize you home. Since many GPS comes with a LOCK it would be better to use that and be done with it. I use the Garmin lock and the GPS is useless if stolen. It will most likely be discarded as they can't sell it on the street.

Then you can do what I do... I don't really worry as it's all insured. Anything that can't be replaced is locked up in my safe deposit box. Anything in my house can be replaced.