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ENTERTAINMENT NEWS | |
HOT WEATHER IS TIME OF OPPORTUNITY FOR CAR PROWLERS
August 06, 2010
(SKY VALLEY) -- It happens to the best of us. It’s blistery hot summer day, we walk away from the car with just enough window rolled down to let out heat AND let in a car prowler.
A prowler who happens to grab that nice leather bag with our wallet and laptop in it that we left in the back on the floor (covered with a newspaper so no one would see it) “just for second” while we ran inside for just a moment to grab something.
Local and state law enforcement officials caution that hot weather means great hunting grounds for car prowlers because they know folks are off their game just a bit and often make just enough of a mistake to give them a good day (or night’s) haul.
According to Police Chief magazine car prowls are simply larcenies from motor vehicles and of motor vehicle parts and accessories.
Three basic types of car prowlers (in general) have been identified from statistics and police experience: an indigent alcoholic who will break a $500 window or door lock to steal 50 cents to apply toward the purchase of an alcoholic beverage; youth gangs that steal car parts to trade among themselves for use on their own vehicles; and drug-addicted criminals that steal any item of value (including documents to be used in identity theft) to facilitate their drug habits.
Add to that of course a few local misguided teens in the neighborhood who have light fingers for just about anything not nailed down.
Oh. And car prowls happen fast. They are crimes of opportunity and they typically take less than 60 seconds to complete. In residential neighborhoods car prowls often occur between midnight and 6 a.m.
In some big cities where the crime is at epidemic levels and where a lot of car windows get busted by prowlers, some savvy folks have taken to leaving the doors unlocked with nothing of value in the vehicle except for a coin or a dollar bill on the front seat as a peace offering of sorts to the prowler so he or she won’t break any windows or tear up the upholstery. We kid you not.
CAR PROWLS EASILY PREVENTABLE
But thankfully car prowls are one of the most preventable crimes on the books. Just do the following:
~ Don't leave ANYTHING of value in the car or truck. Nothing. Not even for a
few seconds because car prowlers are known to hang around busy places like shopping centers, parking garages and grocery stores “clocking” the unwise movements of consumers foolish enough to leave the doors unlocked or the windows all the way down or both (or stashing their purse in the trunk thinking no one is watching them do it).
~ Secure your rig. Roll up all windows, lock all doors, trunks, hatches, bed mounted tool boxes and canopies. Play car prowler for a moment. Think about how you, as the bad guy, would try to gain easy entry to your vehicle.
~ And what are those things of value not to leave in your vehicle? Things like credit cards, checkbooks, bank & ATM statements, wallets, purses, mail, keys, jewelry, exposed mobile garage door openers, CD’s and CD players, cell phones, day planners, the title to the vehicle (different than the state registration which you SHOULD carry) and other such stuff.
~ On a hot night (or any night for that matter) don’t leave your vehicle with the windows rolled down in your driveway. That’s like a big neon sign to a bad guy that says “Come and rip me off Shorty.”
And should you stumble on a car prowler DO NOT confront him (or her). That’s how stand up citizens get hurt and sometimes killed. Leave tackling bad guys to the trained officers who are paid to do that dangerous work.
If you can try to get a description of the person and their clothing and call 9-1-1
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