Another break-in

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

Well...heres an update to my last post here: http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/1478978.html

THEY BROKE IN AGAIN! I got in my car this morning and saw the doors unlocked and the compartment my GPS goes in was open. I start driving to work and call my husband thinking he took it this morning and I was going to tell him he left my doors unlocked. Well he didnt take it and I felt extremely creeped out since this is the 3rd time people have gone in my cars. My doors were locked and I have no idea how they got in since there is no broken windows.

Obviously the police took a report and supposedly will up their patrols in my neighborhood (Russell road). I got to work and went around the car and on the passenger side there are fingerprints and greasy hand print on the window...the police said there is nothing they can do as they don't have time to do that and the work that comes after. I feel like that's understandable but when you have a large increase in break-ins (which they do...we got a robo call from the chief of police not too long ago) they would do more.

I don't know how they knew I had a GPS. I have no suction cup marks, no wires sticking out...etc. I feel unsafe :(

Comments

[two-stabs.livejournal.com]

Weird. My car is like a techno-nightmare on the inside, wires everywhere, chargers galore, and I feel like I couldn't inspire a break in if I encrusted an iPod with bling and left it on the dashboard.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

That really sucks. Unfortunately, if this is the 3rd time someone's gone into you car, it's probably the same people because they'd guess you had goodies in there for them to swipe.

That's a rather odd reaction from the police that there are finger/handprints and they can't be bothered.

[perich.livejournal.com]

Doesn't strike me as odd at all. Tracking down car break-ins is time intensive with a low payout for an average police department.

Not saying that the OP's situation doesn't suck - I had a hard time dealing with the one time my car got broken into, let alone three. Rather, don't expect much help from the cops.

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

I wouldnt expect them to do it if it was JUST me. However theres a large increase in break-ins lately...I got a call from the police recently saying specifically to be more aware. Obviously for the police to send a call out to residents there is an issue.

[empressov.livejournal.com]

Stakeout!

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

lol my husband wants to sit in the bushes and wait for them.

[empressov.livejournal.com]

I think after 3x, I would be taking a day off work to spend a night staking it out. Put somethine that appears to be valuable on your seat or floor in the car to entice the thieves....wait for 'em...then pummel them with a potato blaster!

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

Thats his exact idea. He wants to put a PS3 on the backseat and an ipod in a cupholder. He wants a knife instead of a potato blaster ;)

Joe Horn

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

Why stop at knife? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Horn_shooting_controversy)

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

Just as an fyi....I am totally passing along the joke he cracked to me this morning. He would never do that.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

That sucks -- especially that they police don't want to follow-up despite making a robocall issue out of it and having the evidence right there for the taking. I understand nobody was killed, but still.

Last week, a bicycle was taken from my driveway. It wasn't locked, but it was behind two cars so somebody went looking. Of course, it wasn't locked because it had two flat tires, a broken wheel, and other assorted problem, so I was going to chop it, but still. WTF is wrong with people.

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

"I got to work and went around the car and on the passenger side there are fingerprints and greasy hand print on the window...the police said there is nothing they can do as they don't have time to do that and the work that comes after."

That strikes me as weird. They could get an ID on at least one of the perps of this ongoing problem, and they "don't have time?" Maybe they have their hands full with more violent stuff, but that sounds like "not enough cops" or not enough lab backup, and a big problem, to me.

[pandaposse.livejournal.com]

Maybe it is worth investing in a fancy car alarm system?

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

I have a car alarm.

I have figured out what happened. My IDIOT husband left the car unlocked AGAIN! He is now buying me a new GPS to make up for it lol.

[ron_newman]

Does he read this LJ community?

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

No, he doesn't use LJ

[mermaidcafe.livejournal.com]

Did the chief of police personally also say they don't have time for the follow-ups? Especially since your car has been hit three times, it couldn't hurt to talk to/write to the chief.

I'm not up on the latest thieving technology so I'm not sure how thieves are opening car doors these days. Most likely there's something you can put in the lock, but I had a generally ludicrous but possible suggestion too. If you use the same key for the ignition as the doors, they could very easily get a copy of the key for that vehicle.

Now all you need to do is somehow make dog poo look like a GPS. That would be a good deterrent, or at least great modern art.

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

My husband left the door unlocked again :( I came to this conclusion since he used my car last night after me...and the alarm didnt go off + no window broken = he stupidly left it unlocked.

I mean it happened 2x already now this time...I have learned my lesson. Even if stuff isnt visible I have to take it out.

[ellf.livejournal.com]

Especially if your car is "known" to (a) have valuables, and (b) have a good chance of being unlocked.

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

So true

[firepail.livejournal.com]

wow. that so supremely sucks.

too bad most booby-traps for your car would also be a booby trap for you if you wanted to use the car.

would it help to put in a motion-light? or maybe keep a baby monitor in your car so you would definitely hear someone going in again and could call the cops/catch them in the act?

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

We have a motion light at the end of the driveway near the garage doors. We are having one put in at the foot of the driveway tomorrow.

[firepail.livejournal.com]

wow. these thieves are pretty brazen.

[purpless77.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear this happened again.
I'm not happy with how the police department is handling this though. The least they can do is get the finger prints from the car and put them on file. Even if they weren't caught for this crime if they're caught for another they can be charged with both.

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

That was my thoughts :/

[elizethesleaze.livejournal.com]

you could try investing in one of these!

[mermaidcafe.livejournal.com]

How much does it go for these days?

speaking of po-lice...

[mermaidcafe.livejournal.com]

Apologies for the hijack, but I'm still pretty new to Somerville and this reminded me to ask. How would you guys generally rate the Somerville PD?

Saturday was my first time really talking to them about anything serious, and it seemed like something straightforward got really complicated really quickly, though that could've just been the officer with whom I was speaking. (FWIW, the complication was that they needed a copy of a police report I'd filed in another state, and the other state's police had told me to have the Somerville police request it rather than have me request it myself.)

On the plus side, when my car broke down in the middle of 28, they were there really fast, which is probably why I'm still alive.

Re: speaking of po-lice...

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

They are pretty fast about responding to 911 calls in my experience.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

if folks are stealing stuff out of your car repeatedly, i'd suggest canvassing the nearest pawnshops to see whether your stuff "just happens" to be there. buy it back, get a receipt, and *then* call the police. they might be able to catch 'em then.

i am surprised they didn't lift the prints off your car, how hard can a fingerprint search be?

[firepail.livejournal.com]

I don't know, it seems like they would at least want the fingerprints on file even if they weren't planning on doing an active search on them just so that could possibly tie multiple break-ins to the same person. But then again, maybe CSI has given us the unrealistic idea that all crimes can be solved in less than an hour and that fingerprint searches involve two keystrokes at the fingerprint database-laptop.

[nalz.livejournal.com]

You could get a motion sensitive web cam pointed at your car - I've had a lot of luck with them catching office thieves anyway. If you can catch them in a photo surely the police will at least take that. Sounds like your car might be a good stakeout spot.