Car prowls becoming Seattle headache

Seattle Times ^ | January 4, 2009 | Christine Clarridge

[NCjim]

Tempted to leave that new GPS system in your car? Think you can get away with stashing your laptop behind the seat or your iPod in the glove box?

...

You might as well just leave them on the hood of your car with a "For Free" sign attached. At least you'd save yourself the cost of replacing a shattered car-door window, according to police, insurance agents, glass-repair experts and the legions of folks who've found themselves victims of Seattle's most oft-reported crime — the car prowl.

A two-week snapshot of criminal incidents reported to the Seattle Police Department shows that car prowls, in which windows are smashed and valuables grabbed, are by far the city's most frequently reported crime and that no neighborhood is immune.

In the last two weeks of November, for example, more than 370 car prowls were reported within the city limits, according to SPD statistics.

Experts agree, however, that those numbers represent just the tip of the iceberg, as most people — especially those who have been victimized more than once — don't report the damage and thefts to police or their insurance company.

Why bother, they say.

"There's nothing they can do about it," said David Gill, who lives in the Maple Leaf neighborhood and said his car has been broken into and plundered so many times he's lost count.

...

A man who lives in a big house on Federal Avenue East near Volunteer Park and has been a car-prowl victim several times said he tries to remember to bring everything he values inside with him at the end of the day.

Nevertheless, he's philosophical about the thefts he can't prevent.

"There are a lot of people around here who need help," he said. "Sometimes, my car is where they find it."

[Darnright]

Perhaps if you leave Rover in your car at night instead of your GPS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6TCRy-UHQ8

[LucyJo]

...he's philosophical about the thefts he can't prevent. "There are a lot of people around here who need help," he said. "Sometimes, my car is where they find it."

My question is, "Where do hard working, law-abiding, citizens go for help when those who don't want to work ignore the law and help themselves to your property?"

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Car prowl?

[GOP Poet]

Predators love liberals. Their 'tolerance'. Their gullibility. Their cowardice. Their abject stupidity. Where I live, the neighborhood scum know I keep odd hours, and I will put a bullet in them if I catch them in my realm uninvited.

It's all good.

Mama likes this post--LOL. Awesome! :-D

[Viking2002]