Car Break Ins

I live in a quiet neighborhood where people don't always lock their doors. Last year, we had some local kids steal things from unlocked cars in the middle of the night. Loose change, sunglasses, I lost a knock-off Leatherman, etc. Ever since, we have been vigilant about locking the car doors at the end of the day and I switched to motion-activated lights over the driveway. The Beretta logo is also on display.

Last night, our quiet little cul-de-sac got hit again. Houses beside and across from me lost loose change and keys and such. All of our car doors were locked, so I guess our vigilance payed off. But I have to wonder who is out at 3am on a Wednesday night looking for $.37 in change? I am on a dead-end way off the beaten path far away from the city. It's not transients, its stupid kids who probably get more in allowance per day then they could steal in a week. Why risk getting arrested, beat up or shot just to steal a spare pair of sunglasses? (yes, shooting is extreme. But I have a garage-door opener in each car and kids in the house. I don't know what your motivations are so I will be carrying when I go to investigate a noise in my driveway.)

I know what you're saying. I live in a very similar situation. Very quiet and peaceful suburban area, a typical self contained "bubble" community, complete with large pool and mother hen HOA. I'm on a cul-de-sac...actually not even on the cul-de-sac, I live on a very tiny pathway off the cul-de-sac. Only 3 houses on our "pathway", one on the left side, one on the right and the path ends in someone's driveway. Nobody locks their doors, etc...

I do a very large Christmas display outside. Lights dance to music I broadcast on FM radio, etc... Have about 40k lights total. One of my oldest sons' football teammates has cancer and we set up a donation box right outside the display. It was a cool box, Christmas themed red box, and we had a sign out stating what the donation was for. Someone stole $20 out of it. I suppose it was partly my fault...I saw the $20 in there, but figured I'd clean the box out later, as it didn't have a lot in it (while it's not necessarily hard to look inside the box, it's not as easy as a regular mailbox). The money was gone the next morning. I have no doubt it was neighborhood kids, very, very unlikely to have been outsiders.

I'm staunchly anti-gun, so not going down that road. Nor do I actually truly believe in karma, but if there were such a thing, I hope the kid brought the $20 to school to show off and got beaten up and the money stolen by the school bully. I did a lot of dumb things when I was a kid, but stealing donation money never crossed my mind.

I bought a Pioneer cd head unit off a buddy. I 100% sure he stole it out of a car. The car I put it in never ran right after I installed it.

Car-ma is real.

Some people are just pissants who want to think they're getting away with something.

Somebody stole the spoiler off the back of my GC Sport. Not only did they bend the hatch, but the anchors ripped out of the spoiler so it's not like they could even install it on their van. What was the freaking point?

Similar stuff has been going on in my neighborhood as well. I always leave the cars locked, and only the old truck is parked outside a closed garage at night. I took the garage door openers out of the truck since it's easy to break into. Most of the other stuff in it is small dollar. If go out at night to investigate noises it's usually buck naked with a loaded 12 gauge. I figure if they see me naked they'll be so incapacitated from laughter I won't have to shoot them.

I grew up in a rough neighborhood. People were breaking into cars all the time. It started happening every night one time and I decided to stay out on the porch to see who was doing it. About 2:30 in the morning two kids about my age came walking up the middle of the street. They were checking all the door handles in both sides of the road. I sat there in the dark and watched, the second they touched my car door I leaped of the porch and ran towards them. They split up so being smart I chased the small one. That little berkeleyer was faster than me and after about two blocks I gave up. I likely would have got my ass kicked if I would have caught him anyway.

Did they ever come back?

In reply to Appleseed:

Not that I'm aware of.

I lived in an older neighborhood for a while. part Hispanic and part retired/elderly. All good people who helped each other. Across the main road were these high priced condos. Right next door to them was a million dollar home. We had more trouble from the kids in the condos stealing stuff, cursing out people, and being a general nuisance than anybody except the people in the million dollar home.

They would sit in their garage till 2am, drinking, playing music, and making lots of noise. They were very connected to the police station and local politics and were very vindictive. One of my neighbors got into a shouting match with them about the noise (after a week of calling the police who never showed up) and the next morning, all the tires of all the cars on his driveway were slashed.

In reply to Klayfish:

The problem with investigating suspicious/dangerous noises on your property while unarmed is, you only get to guess wrong one time and it will have just cost you your life, limb, or property. And when seconds matter, the police just minutes away. BTW, the police have no legal obligation whatsoever to prevent crimes or stop them in the act or protect in realtime the citizens for whom they work. Their only true legal function and responsibility is to investigate crimes and apprehend suspects AFTER THE FACT, as ruled by The Supreme Court of The United States. So, if not the cops then who? If not RIGHT NOW, when?

WildScotsRacing wrote: In reply to Klayfish: The problem with investigating suspicious/dangerous noises on your property while unarmed is, you only get to guess wrong one time and it will have just cost you your life, limb, or property. And when seconds matter, the police just minutes away. BTW, the police have no legal obligation whatsoever to prevent crimes or stop them in the act or protect in realtime the citizens for whom they work. Their only true legal function and responsibility is to investigate crimes and apprehend suspects AFTER THE FACT, as ruled by The Supreme Court of The United States. So, if not the cops then who? If not RIGHT NOW, when?

Each to their own. Not worth getting into here, but my opinion won't change. I'm strongly anti-gun.

In reply to Klayfish:

Fair enough. FYI, inside of 12 feet, I am just as effective and deadly with my six-foot ash quarterstaff as I am with my pistols. What then, would be your opinion of quarterstaves, which have no parts to malfunction and have unlimited "ammo", particularly in the hands of a trained practitioner? (I ask out of genuine intellectual curiosity. I love a good civil discourse!)

The six foot quarterstaff is just great until the guy who is just a bit tougher (or has taken more meth) than you thought he would be grabs it from you and shoves it straight up your poopchute.

Mine's seven feet.

An extra foot never stopped 6 feet 190lbs of walking, talking, PCP.

You can't smoke enough crystal meth to keep you from getting a skull fracture or a blown out knee from getting hit with a stout stick.

Saw a guy that was high as a kite on PCP, about 6'3 and 250# get brought back to the ship by the MPs. He broke the 'cuffs they had on him and lets out a roar like a wild animal. This old Shore Patrol guy blew out his knee with a nightstick and the guy went down like a sack of potatoes.

Klayfish I can respect your opinion, and the following isn't directed toward you, you just happened to remind me of a person of similar mindset, and a recent interaction I had with them.

We have an acquaintance, friend-of-a-friend, that has been at many of our mutual friend's parties. A few years ago, we were at the mutual friend's Halloween party, first time I've met this fella, we get along well, have many common interests, and similar thoughts on a lot of subjects, i.e. we're both more or less nerds. Then the subject of guns was broached, not sure how it started, but at the time I was building my first AR-15, and before I knew it I was being chastised and interrogated by this new acquaintance about my hobby. He was staunchly ant-gun. Not wanting to ruin the party, I said my piece, moved on, and stayed away from the subject the rest of the night.

Fast forward to this year's Halloween party, I knew the acquaintance would be there again. SWMBO and I made it a point to not bring up firearms just to stave off awkward moments and/or confrontation.

We say our hellos, catch up, and next thing I know the acquaintance starts picking my brain about firearms, and is telling me about the handgun he'd picked up a few months back. Say what? Who is this guy?

Come to find out, a series of events in their life had changed his opinion from staunch anti, to having a CCW. Acquaintance's wife went back to grad school, and while there, acquired a bonafide stalker. Full on creeper mode, following her around, to the gas station, to home. Acquaintance and wife are fairly new parents, kid at home, stalker following wife home, scary situation. Police weren't much help.

Additionally, acquaintance found 15 minutes, and then some, of internet fame from a Twiter post that went viral. The post was a harmless, funny anecdote about an unfortunate but humorous thing that happened in their life, shared with friends. Then it got shared again, and again, and the media picked it up, and shared some more, and the comments came rolling in, and things got taken out of context, and the bad comments came rolling in, and folks who shouldn't know anything about them started sharing info they shouldn't have known, and folks started making threats, you know typical internet lunacy.

Anyway, this guy was strongly in disagreement with owning firearms, and now they want to go shooting with us. No doubt the circumstances that changed their mind are unfortunate, but they changed their mind.

Streetwiseguy wrote: The six foot quarterstaff is just great until the guy who is just a bit tougher (or has taken more meth) than you thought he would be grabs it from you and shoves it straight up your poopchute.

Lol That's a funny mental image! If one is so foolish as to hold his staff motionless to point where said Bad Guy could actually grab it securely enough to take it, one has earned having one's staff shoved up his poopshoot. But, it would be a serious faux pas for Mr. Bad Guy to grab one's staff if one knows what one is doing with one's staff. Thus, I anxiously await Mr. Klayfish's response to my question of philosophy.

Ok, here is where I get lost. We're talking about home invasions (or car invasions, but whatever).

There is nothing that I own that is worth taking somebodies life. If they want it that bad, they can have it. Hopefully the police will catch them or my dog will corner them. So the only reason that I would even think about shooting is because I seriously thought that my health and life were in danger.

Ok, now that my life is in danger, I really don't care about my things. I want to eliminate the threat. I've fired handguns. I've fired what the media thinks is an assault rifle. And I've fired shotguns. The best firearm for close range damage is a sawed off shotgun. Why the handgun? I can't see well enough in the dark. They're horrible for aim. Why not the shotgun? If and only if I think my life/health (or my wife's or whomevers) is in danger.

Car break in wise, we keep all our doors locked, and if we're leaving home, we do our best to make sure not to leave a garage door opener in a car when we're not there. Who actually parks their car in their garage anyway?

Exception being the TJ (Muffin), Muffin is never locked, but nothing of value is left loose in it, and the faceplate is removed from the headunit. Muffin's soft top is pricey and I'd prefer to take away the temptation of someone slicing open the top or one of the vinyl windows. Just open the door and see there's nothing worth taking.

We had a creeper snooping around our back yard a couple years ago. They woke SWMBO, who then woke me, flash light and the bed-side pistol in hand I went to investigate. Dude was over the fence and gone about as soon as I stepped foot out the back door, probably best that could have happened for both of us. I called the cops, non-emergency number, told the dispatch lady the story, and tried to go back to bed. To my surprise within 10 minutes of hanging up there were 2 patrol cars in my driveway. The officers shined their lights around some, said they'd patrol the area more frequently and went on their way.

During our "Monday morning quarterbacking" of the situation, we realized that I'd left SWMBO defenseless when I took off with the pistol. Sure we have other firearms, but they're all securely stored away, unloaded, etc. No quick or convenient way to get to them in a panic situation. Now we have a his and hers, the pistol and a "tactical" shotgun that reside in our bedroom.

Back to Muffin; I was concerned recently when I noticed the door to Muffin wasn't shut correctly, I thought I shut it last, there's a trick to it, and SWMBO said she hadn't been in it. I also noticed the neighbor kid's initials written in the dust on it, and when I asked him about it he said he'd been "driving" it. He's maybe 8 years old, apparently he'd been playing in my Jeep. It was a relief to picture him playing in the Jeep as opposed to the hooligan of the night my mind had been picturing rifling through my stuff, so the worst case scenario isn't always the actual scenario.

When is a car not a car?

When I got my Acura, I joined a local Honda/Acura FB group. There are at least 2 "stolen car" posts per week. The general consensus of the group is that you should never leave your car unattended unless it is parked in a locked garage.

As far as I'm concerned, that renders a car useless. If I can't go to work or run some errands, what is the car good for? Car shows? Big whoop.

I take my Acura everywhere. Nobody's stolen it yet.

mtn wrote: Ok, now that my life is in danger, I really don't care about my things. I want to eliminate the threat. I've fired handguns. I've fired what the media thinks is an assault rifle. And I've fired shotguns. The best firearm for close range damage is a sawed off shotgun. Why the handgun? I can't see well enough in the dark. They're horrible for aim. Why not the shotgun? If and only if I think my life/health (or my wife's or whomevers) is in danger.

It's funny you say that. I'm in the "waiting" phase of purchase for one of these (Serbu Super Shorty) best of both worlds. This is also a 4 month wait, ATF vetting, extra taxes at purchase, but won't send me to jail like a sawed off would.

My cars were robbed, often, when I was younger. Even stole the toolbox off my S10. Those issues arised when I was at work, and was later found out to be "friends" of mine. No guns were involved, but I promise they've never thought of stealing anything from anyone ever again.

Killing someone for messing with my car? Don't think I could do it. But causing severe pain for several months while the perpetrator heals and reevaluates their life choices? Most defiantly.

Appleseed wrote: Killing someone for messing with my car? Don't think I could do it. But causing severe pain for several months while the perpetrator heals and reevaluates their life choices? Most defiantly.

And, which of those two scenarios to occur depends entirely upon the aggression level of the perp. Attempting to escape after I have caught you will merely get you damaged; the instant you either reach into a pocket after I have instructed you not to or you charge at me will get you a permanent solution. If you don't know how to make a correct running tactical assessment, then you are better off being a victim. My life is in fact worth more to ME than Mr. Bad Guy's is.

Got hit a couple times for loose change w/ the old '02 GP w/ the wonky door lock that wasn't worth trying to lock. Reported every time though as the city PD needs to know whats up in your neighborhood. Never left anything of real value anyway. Same time period a neighbors 5 Series BMW under a street light got a window busted out for visible CD's n such... anticipated BMW owner type loot? Next door neighbor had a S10 truck window smash cause too much E36 M3 left showing inside, attache, bags, CD's, change etc... but the bowling ball was left discarded several yards down the street.

Report everything, our City PD will respond in due time and likes to know. As I found they usually have an eye on some bad egg working the area... report everything! They will in due time respond to a non-emergency theft or even a 'suspicious activity' call. Again, they want to hear it. Don't leave E36 M3 laying out either.