Have you ever or do you leave your keys in your vehicle “just for a minute” while you run into a store or someplace else? How about leaving your vehicle running while you dash in for a slurpee?
I stop at a convenience store many mornings on the way to work, and I’m amazed at the number of people who leave their cars running while they go in for coffee. I’m not talking about dead-of-winter-keep-the-oil-moving - I just witnessed this the last 2 morning with temps near 70. I certainly don’t expect someone to steal my minivan, but I always lock my doors when I leave my van anywhere but in my garage or in my mother’s driveway.
Am I overreacting? Am I overly cautious? Or are some people just asking for trouble?
I dont know if you are overreacting but I never lock anything.
My keys always stay in my car and I never lock the door to my house.
I just can not be botherd. I have had a car stolen before and when the cop asked me if I left the keys in the car i said "Yea, does that mean he can take it? The cop said no and took the guy away.
My house has not been broken into but I doubt that there is a higher ratio of unlocked/locked houses broken into.
That is the word BROKEN into, not walked into.
Oh yea, the greatest benifit is I never lose my keys. I do have keys for some things but never are they the ones I need in a hurry as I am rushing out the door.
My brother use to leave his keys in his pickup till he saw someone drive off with it one day. The cop that showed up when he called mentioned that leaving a vehicle unattended and running is a violation and he could have received a ticket for that. And by leaving the keys, the thief at most would be charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, not theft of a motor vehicle.
And if someone takes your vehicle because the keys are left in the ignition, don’t bother filing a claim with your insurance company, it will be denied.
I dont leave it running.
I dont care what the person is charged with. What does that have to do with me?
I have found no indications in my insurance policy that my bahavior violates the policy.
I never ever leave keys in the car and always lock the door, even when it doesn’t make sense. For example, my husband can drop me off at the door of the mall, intending to swing back around and pick me up in 10 minutes, and I’ll lock my door on the way out. I lock the doors at my mom’s very rural house, miles from any other people. Force of habit.
My car is so old that having theft insurance on it would cost more than the value of the vehicle. If it was stolen, we’d be SOL.
I do leave the doors unlocked to my apartment when I’m not here, however. There are only 5 other tenants in this security building and I just don’t see anything happening. And I do have tenant insurance.
I do sometimes, especially when I’m on the motorcycle. Now way I’d do that in L.A., but up here in Birch Bay I think it’s safe enough.
At my last job I was with my boss on Lopez Island (or one of those little islands, anyway) and he said that people commonly leave their keys in the ignition. Everyone knows everyone else, and someone may need the vehicle. Besides, they’re on an island.
Absolutely not! Why take the chance? That’s what keys are for in the first place. Leaving keys in one’s vehicle just defeats the entire purpose of having them. When a friend of mine had his pickup stolen because he left the keys in it I couldn’t feel the least bit sorry for him. In spite of this incident he still leaves his keys in his pickup. :rolleyes:
i have an old ford pickup that mainly just sits in the driveway. i leave the keys in the ashtray. once in a while it is gone when i get home from work. it always shows up a few days later with a full tank of gas and a thank you note from whichever friend or family member needed to borrow it.
anyone actually desperate enough to steal that piece of junk really needs it more than i do.
I’ll leave the keys in the car, but I won’t leave it running - only because I have a fear of it rolling off or running into something. When I was on vacation, my mother swapped out cars with me and left the keys under the floor mat for when I returned. Of course, she left the doors unlocked so that I could get to the keys. I dunno, I guess I’m just really not too concerned about it. I always figure if someone wants to steal my car, they’ll probably do it whether the keys are in it or not.
I always take the keys with me. But since it’s a Miata, I never lock the car. I’d rather have someone take what they want from the inside than slash the top.
I never leave it unlocked or running! I never leave my house unlocked either! Good lord, don’t you people know that there’s no such thing as burglar-proof, that we’re all just trying to look like more of a pain in the ass to get into than the next house?
In my hometown, while the cars don’t necessarily have the keys in them, most are unlocked. At my parent’s house, out in the country, absolutely we park the car and leave the keys in. Usually in the ignition, but if the beeping of the open driver’s door gets annoying, then the key’s taken out but left in the car by the gearshift. Only for the fancy cars that my father has do we take the keys in the house.
The only place I ever locked my car when I was growing up was in the highschool parking lot.
Not only is my parent’s house never locked, I don’t believe they even know where the key is.
For about my first 7 years in Baltimore, I always left my car on the street unlocked. I never left stuff in it and was of the mindset, “well, if they want to get in it, they won’t break a window.”
Then, the flaws in my plan were exposed. . . it seems that some hooligans would stroll up our street at night, and just try all the doors, then rifle through whichever cars were unlocked. However, they wouldn’t smash windows if the car was locked. Fiendishly clever.
Still, I think there’s something to be said for my original method.
However, I don’t leave the keys in it at a convenience store, but I would when I grew up in small town, Maine.
I frequently leave my keys in the ignition with the engine running, but I carry a second key so I can lock the doors when I do this. Gotta leave the air conditioner and radio on for the dog…
I was always amused as a kid when on holidays and people who parked by the beach while they went for a swim would simply leave car keys on the top of the car tyres. I always wondered how easy it would be to tear off into the countryside in one
