This is what you should never leave in your car
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Most of us should know well enough not to leave our vehicles parked with valuables like cellphones, laptop computers in sight that could tempt thieves to perform a quick smash and grab. But security experts also advise car and truck owners to keep other, perhaps not as obvious things out of the vehicle to avoid falling victim to what could be more serious crimes.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau in Des Plaines, Ill. suggests motorists never store a car’s registration papers or insurance card within the vehicle, and to take the garagedoor- opener transceiver with you when you exit the cabin, or alternately use a clicker that can hang on a key ring.
That’s because if someone breaks into your ride and rummages through the glovebox — few of which are lockable these days — they can use the documentation to learn your address, drive to your home and gain entry to the garage via the transceiver. Worse, a crook could obtain access to the rest of the house if the garage is attached, and it’s easily accomplished if you tend to leave the inside door unlocked.
Likewise, never keep the vehicle’s title in the vehicle. Leave it at home, preferably in a fireproof container, or with other valuables in a safe deposit box at your bank. Having the title at hand is not necessary to show registration or proof of insurance. Plus, you’ll spend time and money to have it replaced and it’s easy for a crook to use a stolen title to create bogus replicas.
Security experts likewise suggest never leaving any paperwork in the car that, in the wrong hands, can make you vulnerable to identity theft. This includes your driver’s license and passport, as well as detailed bills and receipts that could reveal your name, home address, email and even a credit card number. Crooks can use this personal information to fraudulently obtain cash, credit and merchandise, and open phony bank accounts in your name.
You might also not want to keep the owner’s manual in the glovebox. That’s because it might include information that a thief can use to obtain a replacement key from a dealer’s service department, returning later to drive the car off. There could even be a valet key sitting in the manual’s pouch you may not know about.
The NICB says it’s best to instead carry photos of all auto-related documents stored in your cellphone.
Another alternative is to make a photocopy of the registration and insurance information, white out your address, and then make a copy of the redacted version to keep in the glovebox. Either way, a law enforcement officer can usually verify your registration information via the computer in his or her squad car.
There’s one more item far too many drivers fail to take
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with them when they exit the vehicle, namely the keys. According to the NICB, an average of an average of 209 vehicles are stolen in the U.S. every day, simply because the key or the keyless entry fob remained in the vehicle while parked in an owner’s driveway or at the convenience store. Some owners were so careless as to leave their cars unlocked and running with the keys in them while unattended.
This amounts to 229,339 cars and trucks stolen for a failure of common sense January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2018, which is a 56 percent increase since 2015. Going back to 2013, the increase in thefts due to sheer bone-headedness balloons to a whopping 88 percent.
