There was a report Saturday night on Fox 12's 10 O'Clock News on the rash of Smash & Grabs going on at the Tanasbourne "Stanford's Restaurant & Bar" and at "McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse". Laptop computers are the most common items stolen. I can't believe anyone would leave their Laptop on the drivers seat. Some run as high as $1,800.00 to $2,800.00!

I'm sorry, if you leave anything of value in your vehicle in plain sight, you deserve what you get. Would you leave $2,000.00 in cash in plane sight? That's what they're doing! These people are just lazy, not moving valuables into a trunk, out of sight.

Personally I get bent out of shape when family members leave their umbrella's in my car. I always leave my car with nothing of value sitting in plain site. Never giving anyone a reason to break-in.

Here's another one. I also never warm up my car unless I'm in it. I never run into stores leaving my car running. This is just common sense! If we all lived in utopia, this wouldn't be an issue. Am I wrong?

Heck there are people that will break in a car for the coins in a cup holder. I agree Craig, leaving items in plain sight invites a Smash & Grab incident laving the victim with no sympathy from me.

"Heck there are people that will break in a car for the coins in a cup holder."

That's happened to me before, right in front of my own house.

There's a lot of stupid, desperate people out there.

If you leave something in your car, and its stolen, your to blame?

Either the Oregonan or tribune did a series of articles last sumer, on homeless, and they had an interview with a young woman(girl) who explained how she smashed windows, using a certain kind of pottery, which made less noise, and how she could get $20-$30 for an Ipod.

What was sickening, they also spoke wih a Portland Police officer, that works with the homeless, he knew what she was doing, and hadn't arrested her. More of Mayor Potters, and his affirmative action hire police chief's "community policing".

Craig, your entire post should be a PSA. Would probably do a lot more good than a lot of the other PSAs out there now.

If you must travel with a laptop you can now get "LoJack" for laptops. This is a hardware feature that remains even if the the drive is wiped and the operating system is re-installed. If it goes online again they can track and recover it.

Paris Hilton's laptop was stolen and recently recovered in good condition...see for yourself:
http://jriddell.org/photos/wee/2004-02-21-new-laptop-wee.jpg

http://www.lojackforlaptops.com/learn-more-lojack-for-laptops.asp

Lojack, isn't hardware, its software, and part is in the Bios, so all you have to do is do a low level format of the harddrive, reinstall the bios, then reinstall the OS. But that procedure is beyond the capabilities of most people that just grab a laptop out of a car, or at the airport.

I have an insurance policy attatched to my car loan that pays me $5000 if my car is stolen and not found within 30 days. I leave it running without being in it all the time.

It does modify the Bios and like you said that is beyond most peoples abilities, especially with the Bios locked and password protected. For $50 a year it is a good deal for people who must travel with them.

So, Nwokie, I need the link to that story. I want to get my wife and IPOD for Christmas, and $20 is a great price!

By the way, this: "More of Mayor Potters, and his affirmative action hire police chief's "community policing"." is one of the dumbest comments I've seen here. Ever.

Congrats!

"is one of the dumbest comments I've seen here. Ever."

WOW!

And that includes 5318 postings by Herb!

Craig said: "I'm sorry, if you leave anything of value in your vehicle in plain sight, you deserve what you get."

While I agree that you should take precautions to protect your stuff, you really shouldn't have to.

The reason the crack heads that "smash and grab" know that even if they are caught all they will get is a slap on the wrist.

I have a better suggestion of what to do with their wrist. Lop it off. On prime time TV. Lop off the hand they wipe with.

Do enough of them and maybe the message will get across. If not, keep lopping.

Warner, please get 2 of them, I'd like one as well. I'll go as high as $30, $40 if I like the tunes already on it. I don't care what color it is.

And I keep wondering what kind of pottery works best!

Seeing that okie lives in Vancouver, I'm thinking Royce Pollard Mayor Pottery is what he'd recommend.

Hey Bill, do that for rapist's and child molester's as well!

Dark, I'm with you 100% except rapists and child molester's would get something else lopped off!

Merky- I've got two $20 IPODS lined up now. I just went down to the Fox12 surplus sale, they've got lots of great stuff.

Unfortunately, the tunes on it are not so good:

"Rock The Methhouse" by The Tweakers.
"Meth,Meth,Meth" by Outer Southeast (Past 181st)
"I Want Your Meth" by George Metheal (okay, that's a stretch)
"You've Got to Fight, For Your Right, To TWEAK! by Tweaker Boyzz

But I think we can record over them. RIGHT?!! COME ON!

Don't forget the Megahit: "Line Em Up!" by Felony Flats featuring Gloria Peterson.

Great points Craig. I agree with Newflyer, this ought to be integrated into a friendly PSA reminder.

One other "no-brainer" spot ought to be NW Portland. A couple of years ago, while ducking into the Green Room for a few moments, a dear friend of mine had his stereo jacked. The act itself was senseless, but what made it worse was the fact that the vehicle was a "carshare." The crackheads ruined the tunes and added the cold wind to the commutes of half a dozen people, not just my friend.

Where the heck do these freaks get these ideas?

Some time ago, I went to an event, hosted by the Beaverton police department, on the subject of how to avoid scams. In that presentation, they said that meth-heads and other derelicts will often use a broken-off piece of ceramic from a spark plug as a window breaking tool. The ceramic piece is flung at a side window of a vehicle. This causes the glass to shatter without making a lot of noise, thus decreasing the likelihood of attracting attention.

I can understand not wanting to leave computers, purses, or cash lying around in view of passers-by--but umbrellas?? I usually have an umbrella in the car with me, along with a set of jumper cables, a lug wrench, a tire pump, an ice scraper, tire chains, and a flashlight. Fortunately, the derelicts haven't tried to break into my car to get these items.

If I ever caught anyone messing with my car, they might be subject to the "grab and smash". Grab their nuts, and smash them.

I can't post a link, because I read it in a printed newspaper, you know that low tech model, where they take a piece of white paper and put black letters on it.

Because there isn't one in the Tribune or the O. Must've been in that Clark Co. rag or on Fox news.

I leave my laptop in my briefcase on the back seat of my truck all the time. But the windows are tinted and you can't see down into my pickup. You would have to hug up against the glass in order to see in. I may be asking for trouble but that is why I pay Allstate every month for insurance.

I drive a well maintained, but somewhat poor looking car. Like an old shoe, it just fits! And it's cheap.

There is nothing in it a majority of the time, save the radio, that really would be worth taking. Even that's an old SONY, maybe worth $20.

When I do leave things in the car, I've a blanket or two to cover them up, and scrunch to make the appearance of it just being a bundled up blanket!

It's been my experience that either somebody wants the car itself (and they are desperate MoFo's that little will impact), or not. If not, keeping the obvious valuables out of sight is as good as it gets!

So there is some solid logic to keeping one's in-car assets low key. Doesn't take much and doing so removes one potential target attractor for would be thieves. If the car appeals, you've got a greater problem. If not, it's really about your car contents being less appealing than others near by.

That's the essence of security anyway. There is always risk. Keeping that risk / reward ratio lower than most of your peers is security. The bottom line is somebody can take your stuff period. It's all about how much that costs them in terms of risk and effort, vs, the potential reward.

David, I do a similar thing, from time to time. I do carry the important data on portable disk, as that's not recoverable. The machine is just a machine. Any will do, and that's exactly what the insurance coverage is for.

You might consider the blanket bit though. It's cheap and easy. Handy to have in the car too. Never know when it might prove useful.

Mine also runs a small script on boot that pings my home DSL. It's growing rare that people will not use a computer in network mode. Of course, they could wipe it. If they don't, I'll be able to nail them in short order.

My interior is black and with my Zune docked and sitting on the console whenever I leave the vehicle I have a black hand towel I cover it up with. If they can't see anything they want they won't bother.