Crime Prevention Tips: Preventing Burglary of a Motor Vehicle

What you can do to help from becoming a victim:

• Take, Lock, Hide. The basic crime fighting tool to preventing BMV

• Lock your vehicle. Yes, it takes seconds to break a window, but doing so makes noise – and criminals hate making noise. Also, officers report that in many instances where a victim left their vehicle unlocked (to prevent windows from being broken); the suspect broke the window anyway, expecting the vehicle to be locked.

• Hide valuables from sight, or, even better, take items with you. If a criminal doesn’t see anything, they’re less likely to break in, and will go to the next vehicle and window shop. Remember to hide valuables BEFORE you park in the place you’re leaving your vehicle. If a criminal sees you put a laptop in the trunk, they’ll just break into the trunk when you leave. Same advice for putting property under a seat. If a criminal sees you reaching under a seat, they’ll assume something is under there, and break in, looking for property.

• Park in areas that are not secluded. Well-lit parking lots, with good “sight lines”, make it more likely your vehicle is visible to the general public. Attended parking lots, monitored by uniformed or easily identifiable legitimate parking attendants, are ideal. Remember, criminals don’t like witnesses.

• Aftermarket car stereos; consider models with removable faceplates. Take the faceplate with you when your leave your vehicle.

• Record serial numbers of property you may leave inside your vehicle. If stolen, it makes it more likely the suspect, if he tries to pawn, will be identified. Remember, there is no 100% fool-proof ways to prevent all crime. You can make yourself less likely to be a victim of BMV by following the above tips, and by using common sense. Simply locking your vehicle and removing property from inside is half the battle.