Catching a Theif

[Brittney]

Has anyone ever caught the person who robbed you?

Yesterday morning I was heading out to my car to go to school. I noticed a few pieces of thick black plastic next to the passenger side of my car. I picked it up and instinctively looked at my mirrors to see if maybe a kid had broken a mirror. No mirrors were broken. I sat the plastic in the garage thinking nothing of it and got in my car. First thing I noticed was that things weren't in the place I left them last night, and that I had sour patch kids sprawled out all over my car. I freaked and opened my middle console and my GPS was gone. I knew something had happened. Looked around more and my iPod was gone. I felt really sick because at that time, I stupidly remembered I had left my wallet in my console after going out to get gas. Of course, that was gone too. My ID was in there, as well as my social security card, uncashed checks from work and about $60. They also took my school books and a couple of needles and syringes I had in there from school. I ran inside to file a police report. While I was on the phone waiting for an officer, I kept looking at the pieces of plastic. It suddenly clicked in my head that it was the plastic siding next to my window. I ran back outside and looked, and sure enough, that's where they got in at. They stuck something behind it and pried it off then pushed down my window and unlocked my door. At least they were nice enough to roll my window back up afterwards.

The police came out to survey the area and he said that this looked like a job done by someone who knew what they were doing. For that reason, they took prints, hopefully to catch the person. He told me to walk around the neighborhood and look for my stuff. Usually when they get something that is worthless to them, they throw it out. I walked around with no luck until I got a phone call from my neighbor. He found my social security card in his driveway. I was so relieved but still, I'm going to SSA today to see if they can protect my number.

We are still on the lookout for people. 4 other cars in my neighborhood were broken into and several people are complaining about missing light bulbs from outside their houses. My neighborhood is gated, but obviously people can follow other people in through the gates. This is just scary. We set up our home security system for the house, and we are installing an alarm in my car.

I really hope they find the person though. Material things don’t mean much, I just hope they get what they deserve.

But, to be honest, I just think my car is out to kill me. I’ve had way too many problems with it since I got it.

 

[Stackie]

My car was broken into two summers ago. I actually heard them doing it in the process, and looked outside to see them breaking my window with a brick. I called the police but the jerk saw me looking out the window and ran away before the police got there. They didn't do much for me either, just took my statement, what I saw, took his bag that he left behind, and patrolled the neighborhood for a few hours.

Thankfully he didn't have enough time to get anything (I'm guessing he was after my stereo) but I did have to pay for a new window and to get it installed. They never did catch the guy, at least that I know of. The summer after, I noticed someone walking down our street jiggling car door handles to see if they were unlocked. I called the police then as well, but it took them an hour to show up.

It sounds like they did more of an investigation for you, so maybe they'll catch them or at least get somewhere. Sometimes thieves slip up somewhere, so maybe he'll get caught. I was really paranoid after my car got broken into and that's why I noticed the shady guy walking down the street jiggling car handles. If you see anything suspicious, be sure to call the police. Better safe than sorry.

 

[Nancy]

My daughters boyfriend has a digital camera that the hunters set in the woods to see if deer are around. It senses movement and takes pictures at set intervals until no more movement. It works darkness or light and the picture quality is amazing. He got it in the US and it was around $50. The pictures he has gotten off the camera are awesome, deer, birds, squirrels etc.

I've always thought that camera would be amazing as a security camera. Something like that would certainly work in your situation.

 

[mishellyshel]

We own an auto glass company in NJ and the number one reason people have their cars broken into is because the thief can visually see something they want. GPS is the number 1 stolen item, Laptops are 2nd. Stereos are being stolen less & less because most are difficult to remove as well and all the newer ones have removable face plates (we also install electronic equipement, that is how i know this!)

Having said that, MY own personal car was broken into late last year. I usually dont lock it, so all they had to do was open it. they stole my ipod, camera and some cd's and other other items of no use.
They probably will not get caught.

The next night they came back and broke into my fiance's car and his WAS locked.

If you have homeowners insurance, it will be covered. My deductible was only 250 and the amount of stuff taken far exceeded that. You should make sure you contact them to cover all the items taken, as well as the damage to your car.

I went out and bought an ipod touch with the money!

We also live directly across the street from a township cop & one lives 2 doors down.
They told us to make sure we have a bright motion light and to always leave it on. Lock our doors. Leave our porch light on. We noticed our neighbor doesnt have a light on at all, so it was very dark where they were in my driveway.

The hardest part for me was getting over the violation of my vehicle. I did not like that someone was in there tossing papers around and looking thru my stuff!

 

[AZChins]

I'm so sorry! I don't have any advice because where I live I leave everything in the car and rarely lock anything at all so I would most definitely be a target.

So much for your super safe gated community. That's so horrible. It had to have been someone in your neighborhood, right?

I'm glad that you found your social security number! I think that the best thing you can do is call the credit reporting agencies and flag your number in their systems. That way no one can take out a loan or get a credit card or do things along those lines with your SS number.

 

[Brittney]

It had to have been someone in your neighborhood, right?.

Not necessarily. I have had people follow me into the gate before. I got smart though and wait for the gate to close now if someone is behind me. If someone belongs in there, then they should have a way in on their own. They definitely drove though because our rocks are moved around in our driveway and there are tire marks on the curb.

Someone could also walk in easily into any neighborhood. They designed it to be "nature friendly" so there are walking trails in and out of neighborhood through the main road, and the main road isn't gated.

My mom is saying though, that someone must have seen me before with my GPS. I keep that thing in my trunk most of the time, but put it in my console that day, so someone must have known where to look, so that is a little bit freaky that someone is watching me. I put my car in the garage now. Seems that's the only safe spot for any of my cars lately.

 

[AZChins]

Wow! If that neighborhood isn't safe, then pretty much no place is safe up in that area. I've been there before and I still get lost!

I do have to admit that sometimes I follow people into gated neighborhoods when I am taking supplies to people. It's just because it is easier than having to use the call box. I've had people follow me to where I was going to ask why I was there only maybe three times.

I guess you need to throw everything in your purse if you ever have to park outside again. And, I am going to have to remember to lock my doors in the future!

Did I ever tell you about the time that some kids stole my car when I was up in Phoenix? That was pretty awful.

 

[Jenn]

We had someone attempt to break into the house...screen was pulled from the window and window open, but nothing had been tampered with inside the house. We think either our dog scared the thief away - a mini schnauzer, lol, or we happened to get home at the right time to scare them off. They did come back later in the night and stole my purse out of my car which was the one and only time I accidently left it in there. Thankfully, the person was greedy and had been robbing a lot of ppl in our area and got caught, and was held responsible for stealing from us and our neighbors.

eta - we now have security cameras pointing at 4 key locations on our property.

 

[fireflycafe]

If you have time, please check out this site. For my class, we were doing research for Identity Theft: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/

I know besides filing for police report and going to your social admin, you should also do like a credit freeze or check your credit report just in case if the criminal used your ss# to do anything from the time it happened to the time the social admin give you a new # or something.

Sorry for your lost, I know how it feels. My home was burglarize recently (thank goodness before I got the chin's though), and I still violated to this date.

 

[Rickman]

Awhile back, my best friend had his shop broken into. We're gearheads, and they got a lot of expensive parts, and his toolbox, which kinda put him out of business!
About a week later, I was at another friends shop, and one of his employees called me over to look at "the deal of the century" he got!
Was my friends toolbox - complete with 95% of the tools!
Don't know what he paid, and said he didn't know the guy, [?] but gave them up without any problem when my friend showed up!
Never found any of the parts, but at least he was back in business, with an alarm!

 

[Riven]

I had my car broken into, my stereo was stolen. a month later it ended up in my cousin's car. Just so happened her boyfriend, who's vehicle matched the description of the vehicle that was by my car and almost ran over the security guy, put it in for her. I said something about it, and they took the cd player in and nothing was done. After a year of waiting for nothing to be done I wanted my cd player back... which if I did the "case" would be dismissed as it was "evidence". Yea... I took it back, nothing was ever done. I even had to make the cops take finger prints off my car and they treated me like a moron. I lived on gravel, so the finger prints on my rear window were clear as day. This paired with the fact that I had a guy try to kill me with a baseball bat because he had road rage and even though I gave the cops the vehicle and plates, but when the questioned they owner they said "they'd been home all night" so they dismissed my complaint, I have no faith in law officials.