The rule here in Chicago is to definitely lock your car door. I have had my window busted out once and they ran off with my shitty $50 at-the-time (1997) Radio Shack Realistic brand car stereo. Dumb fucks. That has to have next to no resale value. Generally – and I’ve seen this in action – thieves just go quickly from car to car and check doors; it is unusual to smash windows unless they truly don’t give a fuck about being inconspicuous and are doing a quick grab and go. All the other times I’ve been rummaged through (3 times), it’s been because either I forgot to lock the car, a passenger didn’t lock their door (in a car without automatic locks), or somebody I had move my car didn’t lock the door. I’m assuming there have been many instances in which a thief has simply moved on to another car after testing mine, or I’m simply really unlucky that thieves happen to find my car when it’s unlocked.
Not to turn this into another cop-bashing thread but I could see a few rogue officers doing something like this – or even stealing something in your car.
Huge difference between checking a door car handle versus going inside the vehicle and searching it.
I’ll put this upfront to be clear. I think it’s a bad idea and I would be pissed if they tried to do this at work. What you suggest is exactly what we do when there is an issue like this that comes up. We increase patrols and try to get the word out through social media.
But yes it’s a waste of time. Sometimes we have had 15 reports or more in a night for the same thing. That will take at least one officer off the road for an extended period of time. All for crimes that have almost no chance of being solved and could have easily be avoided. Preventing the crime is better than chasing reports.
Moderating: Yup, other post was meant to be:
I 100% agree with this. It’s essentially what I was trying to say.
No, just no. Absolutely not.
- If I left my keys in the car, then they just locked me out of my car. Thanks, assholes.
- I always leave my car unlocked to deter window-smashing. No valuables inside, but thanks for getting my windows smashed, assholes.
- And if they happened to trigger the alarm? I’m sure they’ll scram and play innocent.
- Last but not least, if you don’t have a warrant, stay out of my fucking car. 4th amendment, assholes.
I don’t think for a minute that these guys were trying to be helpful. I suspect that, best case, they were trying to cut down on theft complaints that they’d have to respond to, and worse case, they’re snooping for trouble and using “just locking up for ya” as a cover.
Police shouldn’t infringe my rights in order to make their jobs easier. Being a law-abiding citizen should be easy, and sometimes that will make policing hard. So be it.
You’re wrong. I used to live in an iffy place with street parking. I got my window busted and the interior sacked soon after I moved in. As expected, the cops made a report and I never heard from them again. Same thing happened again, cops useless once again.
I started leaving my car unlocked and empty. The car still got rifled through fairly often after midnight. I could tell by the dust on the handle being disturbed, and non-valuable contents inside being moved around. But at least I didn’t have the inconvenience and expense of having to replace windows.
A cop blaming the victim, what are the odds.
No, you are wrong. I’ve kept my car doors locked for 45 years, have never had a window broken. See how anecdotes work?
I really don’t think that’s what Loach was saying there. More like busting windows is more often a crime of revenge than a crime of opportunity.
AFAIK< IIRC, that data does not include phone number, but yes, mailing address.
I lock my doors. Got my window broken just once- in a bad area, I had visible small change. One time I didn’t lock my door, I had small but annoying things stolen.
You made a generalization (free of evidence, naturally) that people who leave their doors unlocked are just bad at assessing risk. I provided a concrete counterexample to that generalization, demonstrating it to be invalid. That’s how anecdotes and generalizations work. Glad I could help.
And I provided an example showing your example was invalid, as I have stored many thousands of dollars in valuables in my cars for 45 years and never lost a single dollar thanks to door locks.
What do you mean “invalid”? Are you suggesting I’m lying? Please go into the details of exactly how your anecdote invalidates my anecdote.
Maybe first you should explain how your anecdote invalidates my original statement:
Your anecdote would be akin to me saying “People who don’t get covid vaccines are making bad risk assessments” and rebutting it with “I did not get vaccinated for covid, and when I got covid it was asymptomatic and cleared without issue; but I have a friend who was vaccinated from covid and died, therefore the people claiming vaccination is the better bet are invalid.”
The experience of one person, in which you might be net-ahead in life on broken windows if you never locked your car, does not change the fundamental risk assessment as a rule, unless you believe your experience to be a universal axiom.
I would be mightily pissed if cops locked my car door without my consent, especially since I’m the kind of person who sometimes leaves my keys in there. That’s got to violate some sort of private-property law or whatnot.
Your original statement is a generalization with nothing whatsoever offered to support it. No data, no cite, no evidence, no nothing. It’s an opinion. An anecdote is enough… no, it’s actually more than enough to refute an unsubstantiated generalization like that.
Here, let me help. You are claiming that in every situation, you are better off with locked doors. HMS_Irruncible has given evidence that in one place he lived, he was better off with unlocked doors.
I believe that the best (lowest risk) choice varies, depending on where you are leaving your car. In my garage it is best to leave the car unlocked, as it protects me against having to rummage around looking for the key when i want something i left in the car. My garage, despite being unlocked, is a very low risk area.
In some higher-risk areas, like my friend’s driveway, in the city, where i parked last night, the optimal choice is to lock the car. The population density is high, and it’s unlikely a casual thief would want to draw attention to themselves by breaking my windows. And i didn’t leave anything that looked like it was worth stealing in the car. But in higher risk areas, especially if there are things in the car that look like they might be valuable, but aren’t, it’s safest to leave the car unlocked.
And HMS_Irruncible gave an example of a place he lived that fell into the last category.
The “because I left it unlocked on purpose” objection is pretty low on my list of reasons I don’t want the police messing with my car without my permission. It’s like objecting to the police entering your house without a warrant because they might get mud on the carpet.
It’s not just checking the door handle, it is locking the door as well. This requires a bit more intrusion into the car. In my car, the button to lock the doors is in the center of the console. If someone was that far into my car, they’d very well see anything I didn’t want them to see, or be able to put anything I didn’t want to have.