Another week of victims
Everybody should have a scanner to hear some of the calls that come out.
A man frantically calls to report his vehicle was stolen. Turns out the keys were left in the unlocked vehicle and it was left running while he was inside a convenience store.
A woman reports that her purse, wallet and cell phone were stolen while she was shopping. She had left them in plain view on the front seat of her car.
A woman reports that someone had opened up several credit cards in her name and charged several thousand dollars just weeks after she gave out personal information to a stranger on the phone. Someone who represented themselves as a credit card company representative. She failed to recognize warning signs that the caller was not legitimate.
Several bicycles and tools are stolen from an open garage. One that was open for several hours while the owner was sleeping inside the house.
The list goes on and on but thefts are the majority of preventable calls that we respond to over and over again, so that will be our tip section this month.
After responding to a theft from a car, I constantly hear people say “I was only in the store for a minuteâ€. Well, it only takes about 5 seconds or less to smash a window and grab a briefcase, purse, etc. Or the lucky thief finds the window open and simply reaches in to grab what they want. It’s amazing the things that people leave in plain view in their cars. Purses, wallets, laptop computers, checkbooks, briefcases, etc., usually laying on a seat or on a console in plain view.
Here’s an example. You pull into a 7-11 parking lot and your purse is on the passenger seat. You run in for “just a minute†to grab a cup of coffee. You leave the purse on the seat and you’re in too much of a hurry to lock the car door. Besides, there are no other cars in the lot so there’s nothing to worry about. You get your coffee, grab a pack of gum and go to the checkout counter. You see people walk into the store and notice cars parked on both sides of yours. You go to your car and begin driving out of the lot when you notice your purse is missing.
You see that the cars that were parked next to you are now pulling out of the lot and you also see some school kids wearing backpacks walking away from the parking lot. What can you do? Nothing. It’s too late. Unless you saw who took the purse from your car there is nothing you can do except to start the process of calling all your credit card companies, DMV, Social Security office, etc……to report the loss.
Or what if your laptop was stolen from your car? The one with all your personal business information stored on the hard drive. The one you were going to create a back up disk for but you never got around to it. Any loss creates inconvenience and a lot of times, monetary losses. The hassle of reporting or replacing stolen items can be very frustrating. And the aftermath, especially with credit card or identity theft, can last for months or even years.
But instead of having to spend hours trying to straighten out losses after items are stolen, why not take an extra 10 seconds or less to prevent it from happening in the first place. Our book has numerous tips on how to prevent different types of thefts and what you can do if you become a victim, but here are a few quick tips to start with.
Never leave anything of value in plain view in your vehicle. Take it with you, put it inside your house or workplace, or if that is not possible, lock your valuables in the trunk of the car or at least hide it. Thieves usually don’t waste time searching inside a car if there is nothing is in plain view to attract them.
Lock your car. Thieves rarely break windows or force entry to a car unless they see something they want. If you leave a laptop or purse on a seat, locking your car probably won’t help. Locking your car and making sure valuables are not in sight will probably make the thief pass you up and go on to an easier target.
If you like to leave your home garage door open while you are home, keep an eye on valuables. Don’t leave wallets, cell phones, etc on a work bench or somewhere where a solicitor or neighborhood kid might get tempted to take it. If you’re not going to be in the garage for some time, shut the garage door. And keep the door leading from the garage into the house locked. There was a recent rape and murder of a housewife where the 3 suspects entered through an open garage door. They randomly selected this house because it was the first house they saw with an open garage door.
Never leave keys in your car when you are not in it. I hear calls daily from people reporting cars stolen after they left them running to warm up or while they were in a store. Warm up your car by slowly driving a block or two. It only takes seconds to steal a car. Locking your car and taking your keys with you usually assure your car (and valuables) will still be there when you return.
Never give out personal information over the phone unless you are sure who you are talking to. Ask for a supervisor, ask for a return phone number and call it back. Ask for a company address. Tell them to call you back later and in the meantime, Verify the information. NEVER give out your social security number unless it is absolutely necessary. If someone asks for mine to verify information, I usually give them just the last 4 numbers even if I know it’s a legitimate call. I don’t think anyone except me needs my whole social security number. Take the time to verify the caller; the consequences of identity theft are devastating.
There are many more tips, stories and useful information in our book to help keep you from becoming a victim. While we try to update our web-site on a semi-regular basis with new stories and tips, we get bogged down at times with work, court, overtime, family life etc. Our new book is currently being published in a bound version so why not order the book and get all the tips, stories, and over 280 pages of useful information at once.
If you don’t buy the book right now, keep coming back to our web-site for useful tips one at a time.
Thanks for visiting and take the time and precautions to be safe……….
The NetCops staff,
Jim, Mark & Brent
