Must Read. Information about house break ins from a friend in law enforcement

[auxmike]

Leaving a GPS or handbag in plain sight is begging to getting broken into. Being as your in Australia OP, perhaps that's how they do it there. Here in NY people want money, change , cigarettes , cell phones or other neat trinkets. They won't give a crap about going to find your house since they will do it right on your driveway as you sleep! They need your stuff for DRUGS. Money or electronics= your fix of poison. Heroine is the biggie. Those addicts are ruthless..... Neatly breaking in and not touching anything is a waste of time.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by auxmike

Leaving a GPS or handbag in plain sight is begging to getting broken into. Being as your in Australia OP, perhaps that's how they do it there. Here in NY people want money, change , cigarettes , cell phones or other neat trinkets. They won't give a crap about going to find your house since they will do it right on your driveway as you sleep! They need your stuff for DRUGS. Money or electronics= your fix of poison. Heroine is the biggie. Those addicts are ruthless..... Neatly breaking in and not touching anything is a waste of time.

Do people in your area use their garages for other things, making parking in them impossible? Would the thieves you speak of break into garages anyway if they could tell a car was inside? There has only been one car break in on my street, victimizing a neighbor who sometimes parks his car in his garage and sometimes does not. The break in happened when he was parked in his driveway. His car is also the cheapest on our street, a 90 something Civic Hatchback with 280k+ miles.

[why?]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

In California this happens (I've heard) re people who currently can't afford the renewal and are trying to 'buy time' (hoping they can slide under the radar of a cop noticing the plate and sticker number don't match) until they can afford the registration renewal. Wouldn't an entire plate being stolen put a monkey wrench in that (because a car owner is definitely going to notice a plate (vs a sticker) missing and report it)? Or are the plate thefts in Boston pranks performed by kids?

I haven't heard of either sticker theft or plate theft in ma. In honesty, plates get so dirty i'd be shocked if you could actually get the stickers off. And sometimes plates can take forever to take off.

What are the prices for renewal in Cali? Or texas for that matter? In mass renewal is pretty cheap. I think it was $50 or so for a year, maybe two.

The other problem with mass is there is such a history of both mafia crime and corruption that you could probably buy fake stickers off the street if you were desperate enough. There were reports this year that the rmv in mass were sending out renewals without the stickers in the envelopes, and stating it was a 'mistake.' no one around here thought it was a real mistake.

[edmscan]

Here in Alberta it is common for there to be license plate thefts, where they are used in subsequent crimes. Fortunately the police have distributed special screws that cannot be taken off (except by police) .. and they prevent license plate thefts. Stickers on the above license plates probably are seldom stolen .. as I really don't think that you can get them off once they are applied without ruining them.

[yaris2010RS]

Originally Posted by edmscan

Stickers on the above license plates probably are seldom stolen .. as I really don't think that you can get them off once they are applied without ruining them.

If you put your sticker over your previous year without pealing it off its very easy to remove the top sticker with a exacto-knife. you can then glue that sticker onto another plate and unless your plates are run, they appear to be valid

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by yaris2010RS

If you put your sticker over your previous year without pealing it off its very easy to remove the top sticker with a exacto-knife. you can then glue that sticker onto another plate and unless your plates are run, they appear to be valid

^^^^^ This. This is what some people do in California.

[edmscan]

Originally Posted by yaris2010RS

If you put your sticker over your previous year without pealing it off its very easy to remove the top sticker with a exacto-knife. you can then glue that sticker onto another plate and unless your plates are run, they appear to be valid

And you wonder why the police pull you over ?

[yaris2010RS]

Originally Posted by edmscan

And you wonder why the police pull you over ?

LMFAO, hey, my plates are vaild.

only reason i know this is because i worked as a towtruck driver to pay my way thru school. lets say i came across alot of people who either got caught with this scam or were willing to purchase stickers

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by why?

I haven't heard of either sticker theft or plate theft in ma. In honesty, plates get so dirty i'd be shocked if you could actually get the stickers off. And sometimes plates can take forever to take off.

What are the prices for renewal in Cali? Or texas for that matter? In mass renewal is pretty cheap. I think it was $50 or so for a year, maybe two.

The other problem with mass is there is such a history of both mafia crime and corruption that you could probably buy fake stickers off the street if you were desperate enough. There were reports this year that the rmv in mass were sending out renewals without the stickers in the envelopes, and stating it was a 'mistake.' no one around here thought it was a real mistake.

Texas is great. For 'regular' cars (like a Yaris....non classic or other special status) It is a small fee that is based on the model year of the car and the weight (the weight might be for pickups and large SUVs as I think most or all cars fall under the same classification), but not on the cost of the car (after the initial year). Various counties have little fees (some I think even unrelated to cars) that are allowed to be added. My county has one of these fees, and I think it is about ten bucks. So the fees are flat. Also, Texas allows some large businesses to offer renewal so you don't have to wait in line at a bureaucratic slow office. I think I pay an extra dollar for that (to Kroger...I do my renewal at Kroger). My total for all of these fees/registration together in September of 2012 was $62.75.... In California, you get reamed. The fee is based on the purchase price of the car (not a flat fee), and it continues to be based on the purchase price in subsequent years as well.

When I bought my Yaris in Rhode Island, I told the salesperson the rest of my itinerary. This conflicted with info that I needed to know that she didn't give me. Perhaps she thought if she gave me the proper information I'd change my mind. SMH. My temporary registration sticker lasted for 2-3 weeks. A day or so early, I went back to the dealership to get a new temporary one. She said state law doesn't allow that (= the information she withheld from me), so the GM said they'd have to pretend we lost the initial temporary registration to issue another one, and they did that. I called the California DMV information line and was told that I had to physically get back to California with the car in order to register it properly. This upset me because I wanted to leave my Yaris with my little godson's family in North Carolina, or with relatives I have near Atlanta and fly back to California for Thanksgiving and to register my Yaris. Then to fly back to my Yaris and finish my trip. When I got back to California, I found out that the information the guy gave me over the DMV 800# information line was wrong, that I didn't need to return to california with the car. I was pissed. I hate that jobs like that are under the auspices of the government. Many of the people who have them don't care about doing them well because they know how hard it is for them to lose their jobs. When I initially heard that I had to go back to california with the car in order to register it there, I tried to register it in other nearby states so I wouldn't have to drive back. No luck. Re Massachusetts (on that front) I went into the 'DMV' office either in Chicopee or Springfield. Ugh. Almost as bad as California.

It used to be when you relinquished personalized plates in California, you just turned them into an official DMV location (not a contract location like a AAA office). I didn't change my car registration to Texas until The end of August of 2010. In November of 2010 I went into an official DMV office in Blythe, California to turn my plates in. They refused to take them. They told me I had toi send them to Sacramento and gave me an address. I had to pay to send the plates certified mail to make sure they got to Sacramento.