Protecting your Yaris from Car Thieves ?

[edmscan]

Originally Posted by bronsin

The Yaris is self protecting to a certain extent because no one would WANT to steal a Yaris like they would want to steal a Honda.

I leave nothing in the car anyone would want to steal.

I leave the drivers door unlocked. This lets the potential thieves enter the car and determine nothing valuable to them is in it. Thus there is no need for them to smash a window and enter.

If they want to steal the car locking the door wont deter them. My wifes Accord was stolen in front of our house 10 years ago and it was locked. Thanks to my neighbor who heard the slap hammer removing the ignition lock the police arrived just as the thieves drove off. They declined to chase the crooks and just put the car on the stolen list. We got the $3000 blue book value of the car from the insurance company. Of course we lost a working car we kept in repair that had 150k on it.

A year or so ago thieves entered every car they could in our neighborhood including mine. I keep a credit card in the drivers side low storage area and they did not find it. They entered the passenger glove box which they strewed on the floor but found nothing. My license registration etc was in the drivers glove box which was undisturbed. I believe they never knew about the drivers glove box which is unusual so that's why I put stuff there.

I agree with somethings but would not be practical here at all.

After talking to the police, several things .. this is what they said.

Leave nothing of value visible in your car.

Good lighting.

They will steal a Yaris but they are not popular here, I do not see many of them on the road. He said it would not be a target, but they sure will break in to steal anything of value. He said .. they will do what they need to do, and no car is safe from that. The big thing is deterrence.

I will keep my club and doors locked. If I left a door open .. I would undoubtedly come out to a ransacked car or worse every week. I have no doubt about that. I think that you live in a better neighborhood than I do .. would not even consider doing what you are doing. A credit card .. recipe for disaster. I leave no documents of any type in my car.

In my car, they checked EVERY hiding spot .. nothing was untouched. I do not leave anything ... but a ham radio in my car. It is just in front of the driver in the little compartment. That is not valuable .. as you need to be a ham to use it, and has no value in the pawn shops or on the street. They could likely not sell it.

The police said .. "they will not touch a car with a club, they will just steal your neighbors car". I tend to agree.

My landlord improved the lighting now after my car's incident and my neighbors. The police said .. "the best thing we can do is improve the lighting".