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Journal jeffy124's Journal: How long 'til the paranoia wears off? 10

Journal by jeffy124

Ok, so a few weeks ago, my car got broken into. The passenger rear door has a little triagular piece that was shattered. I think the guy got scared off, as nothing was gone and only that door was unlocked. $200 to replace the window.

In the few weeks leading up to my car getting hit, I noticed a few other cars in my neighborhood with smashed windows, bags over windows, glass in the street, etc. Given what I've learned in my crime class, I decided to report it, knowing full well that it wouldnt result in an arrest, but would increase patrol for a while, which maybe would purge the vandals from the area.

Naturally, I'm a little paranoid about where I keep my car. When it was hit, it was less than a block from my apartment, in a relatively crime-free neighborhood. But the street was a low-traffic side street. I've since been trying to keep it on more main streets, streets with regular traffic (both cars and on foot), in hope that a would-be vandal wont try. I've also noticed I've been keeping it (mostly) within view of my apt.

So, the simple question is, how long until that paranoia wears off?

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How long 'til the paranoia wears off? More

How long 'til the paranoia wears off?

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  • Had a wallet taken from a borrowed van when I lived in Philly. Just when I got it straightened out I had it stolen AGAIN from a car of mine near South Street.
    It took me a while to get over it. Oh, and I stopped leaving my wallet in my car (don't ask -- I was young and dumb.)
    Now I religiously lock my car and house doors.
    FWIW, in my neighborhood, we started to have break-ins into cars. The police stated that this is not the sign of a neighborhood in decline. Typically, crooks target places where they think people are lax due to a sense of security.
    My wife says, "Yeah. I never lock the car up."

    Anyway, give yourself a month or two. Especially if they either catch the perp or the dope realizes how dumb his actions are.
    • I live in West Philly/University City. They have this "Safe Streets" program going on right now where there's this huge task to rid streets of drugs and such. My neighborhood is not among those targeted, but they start a few blocks from here. My guess is someone came to my neighborhood because of heavy police presence where he normally does his business.

      I haven't noticed much in the past week in terms of seeing broken glass, etc. Maybe he realized how dumb he is, or that Camden is right across the river :-)
      • "Project Safe Streets"?
        Isn't that the one where the police do their job?
        • That's the one!!

          Actually, they have a large number of extra officers on duty, are handing out lots of overtime, staging raids, towing junk cars, having abandoned homes/buildings boarded up, etc. Oh, and taking in druggies, but also pretending to be the seller (using catnip and other substances that look like drugs) and nabbing the buyers. Yeah, doin their jobs.
  • .. and they'll open the door to steal the pocket change in your car.

    Don't leave anything in it that you dont want taken, and remember that if they want to steal the whole dam car, they're going to steal it. Locked doors, or not.

    People steal shit; just try and minimize the amount of damage they have to do in order to steal it. (Also, put a sticker in the cab of the car with some FUD about your car being tagged and registered for satalite tracking should it be stolen or some such.)
    • well, i keep the doors locked, but also keep nothing in sight. Keeping nothing in sight (and keeping the inside clean of trash and loose paper) is often a strategy to prevent such incidents, and I know people who have had break-ins for pocket change, pack of cigarretts, bums looking through trash, etc.

      I use the ashtray to keep quarters for meters, and the glove compartment for the EZ-Pass, but the little velcro strips are still visible.

      I also have a club on the steering wheel, but dont really know how effective it is in preventing theft of the whole car. The car's previous owner had an alarm, and a little red diode is visible, so a knowing thief might move to an easier target, even though the alarm dont work.
  • your milege may vary. I had a car that was only one month old stolen right out of my drive way when I used to live in Cleveland. I lived in a very nice neighborhood too. I was always told that you weren't a real Clevelander until your car was stolen. I lived there 10 years before it happened but it did.

    Bottom line is that you should just take the regular precautions against this kind of thing without obsessing too much about it. If it happens, well you are not alone in this. Just let your insurance handle things and relax. Life is too long to be paranoid.

    • I was always told that you weren't a real Clevelander until your car was stolen

      I grew up in NJ, stolen car capital of the country. Colleges actually use their stolen car rates as marketing statistics for prospective students. Rutgers-Camden (the year I was a Sr in HS) had 2. They said "Let's see the Cherry Hill Mall pull that off!"
      • I guess it has become an epidemic problem in many places around the country. I live in Sacramento now and I heard the other day on the radio that Sacramento County was also in the top 5 for stolen cars and hence high insurance rates.

        I know when my car was stolen in Cleveland the cops didn't even come by when I called them. They barely took a report. They just said call your insurance company and they will handle it. It had about the same importance to them as a complaint about a barking dog. The car was never recovered.

        • Cops are like that everywhere. The "report" consists of type of car, plate#, where it was parked, when it was stolen, etc. The plate goes into a list of stolen vehicles, so that when cops run plate checks (eg, on illegally parked cars, pulled over vehicles, etc), they find out a car's status.

          I only know one person who's car was stolen. It was located by police the next day a few miles away in a drug neighborhood. The out of state tag drew the police attention to it, which is why they ran the check. There were some "interesting" things left behind - crack pipe, smell of pot, etc. Police took it to a shop for cleaning, and returned it. Insurance covered the cleaning bill.

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