Another car break-in

[mattlistener.livejournal.com]

I live on Prichard Ave, which is NE of Davis near Ball Square. Sometime between 2:30pm and 6:30pm today, someone broke into the car that a guest of mine had parked on Prichard, and stole his GPS.

We called the police right away. They asked for the license plate number of the car that was broken into, and we were then surprised to learn that the police had already recovered the GPS unit. The dispatcher did not know whether they had caught the exact person who had broken into the car, it could be that it was recovered from whatever fence bought it. We won't know until my guest calls the officer who handled the case, when he's available tomorrow.

We found a 3-pound barbell weight in the car that had obviously been thrown in to break the window. That's in a plastic bag now to hand off to police.

Fortunately my guest has insurance that will cover the cost of replacement window, so all he's out in the whole episode is the hassle of cleaning up and lacking a window until he can get it to the shop. I helped him plastic it up.

I'm aware there've been several similar incidents in this area lately. Tell all your driving guests to hide their GPSes, stereos, iPods, etc.

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Oh, ugh! I'm glad your guest got the GPS back and the insurance company will pay for the window.

In addition, when you park, hide things like power cords and dashboard mounts, and wipe suction-cup marks off your windshield.

[belladonna.livejournal.com]

Sucks for your friend but I thought it was just common sense these days to hide your electronics or just take them out entirely.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I survived the big wave of car stereo thefts that happened in the late 80s and early 90s--remember "NO RADIO" signs? Those thefts died down when aftermarket car stereos started coming with removeable faceplates, and when manufacturers started putting better radios in cars from the factory in order to profit from the market for better car audio. So for about ten years or so this wasn't the huge problem that it was for the ten years prior to that, and a whole buncha twenty- and thirty-somethings got used to parking their cars and not having to worry.

Looks like the widespread use of GPSen has opened up the market for that particular type of theft again. :-(

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Also iPods; portable, easy to sell, and popular.

[triphicus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when people leave an iPod visible in their car, they are really just asking for it to be broken into.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

I'm a little wary of taking that point of view myself. It might be UNWISE and UNSAFE to leave electronics like that visible in the car, but I always hesitate to say that someone is ASKING to be a victim of a crime, because that line of thinking leads to uncomfortable places.

[triphicus.livejournal.com]

Yea, perhaps I was a bit careless with my speech. I certainly did not mean it literally.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

I agree with badseed1980 - someone who does a specific thing that someone else considers temptation is ASKING to become a victim?

Nice short skirt, miss.

[triphicus.livejournal.com]

Of course I did not mean my words to be taken literally (seeing as how I was utilizing a figure of speech). All the same, though, it is a matter of common sense that when someone leaves something valuable in a car for all the world to see in a big city, he/she has increased his/her chances of being robbed by a ridiculous degree. Thus, everyone should really take it upon themselves to be aware of this and not to do so.

And I don't really wear short skirts, but I see what you are getting at (and no, I don't think the two cases are all that analogous).

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

I'll admit, I'm being very hard nosed on the issue - because it really seems, like someone who WAS robbed this way, like most people on this journal are saying it's the victim's fault.

That's a dangerous precedent to set, attitude-wise.

[mihmo.livejournal.com]

so you think for someone to own a nice car in somerville, e.g., a brand new car or a nice name brand car, they are just doing it because they want to be robbed? how does that analogy work for you?

i think your reply and edit in your defense made me angrier about your original post. if everyone acted in awareness and fear of every single thing that could happen to them ever, when would they have time to live a productive life?

[mihmo.livejournal.com]

nobody ASKS for their car to be broken into. my car was broken into and my ipod stolen, but my ipod was not visible at all.

[snow-how.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the break occurred closer to the 6:30 end of "2:30 to 6:30" -- after it got dark? It'd be pretty ballsy to break a car window in the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday, when presumably more people are out and about in yards and on the street...

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Nope, it was right in the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday.

[snow-how.livejournal.com]

When I posted the above I didn't know there was more info than what the OP had in his post...

So knowing now that it appears someone was caught... on the one hand, it's crappy that thieves are so brazen as to do this in the middle of a weekend day; on the other hand, maybe that's in part what led to this one being caught today...

[ceo]

gosling saw the broken window sometime around 5:45-6:00, and called the police. We didn't realize it was a guest of yours. They asked the address, and said they already knew about it. (For those of you listening at home, we're mattlistener's upstairs neighbors.)

I hope your guest was able to find his way home anyway. :-)

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Actually this was already being covered at the bottom of the last post about car breakins:

>zmgmeister
>2008-01-26 04:37 pm (local) (link)
>Update: They caught somebody.

We're everywhere ;)

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

I have relatives that live out in the sticks and when they come to visit me they leave their GPS stuff in the car. I tell them not to and they always have the same reply... "oh I keep forgetting you dont live in a safe area". Um no I just dont live where there are cows and houses miles apart!

I think people that live outside the city dont realize that when they ARE in the city they need to change their habits.

[ron_newman]

Also, an area can be perfectly safe to walk around and still have a problem with property crimes.

[belladonna.livejournal.com]

Seriously. If I were a thief I'd be hitting the "safe" areas. No guard dogs, no alarms, no semi-automatic weapons ... just free stuff!

(Note: I am not a thief)

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

I managed to catch a bit of police activity earlier this afternoon; four police cars at Broadway and Cedar (actually saw some guy getting cuffed on the porch of the house to the west of the gas station there), plus on the way home, three police cars in front of a house on Central St. between Forster and Medford.

I wonder if these were related to A) the original post and B) the slew of recent car break-ins.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Of course they got him, given that they recovered it so soon after the actual theft.

There was some commotion in Ball Square yesterday afternoon, and it wasn't too hard to figure what that was all about. Hence the scoop.

[eeyorecol.livejournal.com]

I know that in Boston, all pawn shops have to report all good sold to them to the police. It's possible that if it was sold to a pawn shop, the owner called it in to the police (though that would probably be a pretty quick turnaround...)

[queue.livejournal.com]

I was mattlistener's guest (you know, the one asking to have my car broken into). I talked to the police today and was able to tell them the serial number of the GPS, so they should be able to pin this on the person they caught.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

you know, the one asking to have my car broken into

I SO hate that attitude.
I agree with what I think your unspoken point is - why blame the victim?