GPS stolen out of my truck and wifes car

[c.a.willard]

I'm posting this so that others can learn from my mistakes.

 

Brief synopsis.  

 

Last night i returned home from fishing around 11-11:15  went to bed around 1 in the morning.  My wife woke up with our daughter around 630 this morning.  Got ready for work and went outside to get in her car.  When she got to her car she noticed her GPS wasn't in the vehicle so she came back inside and asked me if i had moved it.  I went outside and checked my truck and sure enough mine was gone to.  Normally i lock my truck, but my remote lock is currently broke and last night i forgot to lock it back up after getting my fishing gear out of the truck(laziness on my part).  My wife almost never locks her car when its in the driveway although we've had the discussion of why she should about a 100 times.  I guess in the future we will both be more carefull about ensuring our vehicles are locked.   Thankfully they did not take my wife's work computer from the back of her car.  She is a social worker that works with the aged and disabled and that laptop contains a lot of personally identifying information on her clients.  Names, addresses, SSN's,  Finances all sorts of stuff.  Not sure why she left it in the car but i don't think she is likely to again.  We didnt have the serial numbers for either device written down so the likelihood of them ever being found is absolutely nil.   We live on a culdesac and this is the first incident of something like this i know of happening in my neighborhood.  Mainly i got complacent

 

The worst part is i absolutely know better.  After 10 years as an MP and all sorts of training in physical security i know that leaving your vehicle unlocked with a GPS in sight is a really good way to have it stolen.  I also know that you should record the serial number of anything valuable because that is the most likely way of it being recovered.  I didn't do either and my cost for this will be replacing two GPS units. 

 

I called CPD to let them know it had happened but declined to have an officer come out and do a full report, mainly because i feel it would be a waste of that officers time.  I just wanted the information recorded for their crime mapping data as it effects patrol distribution planning.  

 

I think that everyone has the opportunity to learn from others mistakes so i would like to offer my mistakes for your learning benefit.  I had all the knowledge to prevent this from happening i just did not actively do anything to prevent the theft of my property.

[DaveS]

I would have reported it, that way the police could contact the local pawnshops with that info.

 

Dave S

[c.a.willard]

if i had anything that individually identified them i would have.  

[Mister L]

Someone got into both mine and my wife's vehicles the other night.(Madison) They got my GPS, my wife didn't have one but they ram-sack it anyway. We both always lock up and I think they must have used an electronic RF device to unlock the doors. I reported it to the law with the SS#.  

[jimic]

Join the crowd in Clarksville. Seams like they wait for you to , NOT to lock your truck and GOT YA.

 

I believe this show how much stealing goes on at night. Last time i cough the guy on my Surveillance camera , finger prints on the door and  the Police still didn't want to come out.

 

My contribution to Montgomery count crime spree for the year !!

[RobertNashville]

It's a shame, isn't it, that you can't hook a power line to your vehicle so that if someone tries to open it they get a nice little incentive to more on...of course I guess that would be mean.

[Spots]

It's a shame, isn't it, that you can't hook a power line to your vehicle so that if someone tries to open it they get a nice little incentive to more on...of course I guess that would be mean.

Or just shoot the son of a *****. A dead thief is the only kind of thief I can tolerate. I know some here see more value in a human life than in material, but I bust my ass everyday for anything I have. Any man that makes the decision to take it has made his choice, and if you've made the choice to steal then you staying above ground and breathing doesn't matter to me. Maybe if more thieves were shoot or hung we wouldn't have these problems. Sorry about your things OP, I hate a damn thief.

sent from the backwoods
Edited June 24, 2013 by Spots

[jtmaze]

Well said Spots. I wish courthouse hangings would could back in style it would solve alot of the crime problems in the US.

[DaveS]

It's a shame, isn't it, that you can't hook a power line to your vehicle so that if someone tries to open it they get a nice little incentive to more on...of course I guess that would be mean.

No, what the real shame is Robert is that you can't have anything without some lugnut taking it from you! We shouldn't have to lock our stuff up. Just the way it is though!

 

Dave S

[Dolomite_supafly]

I would have reported it and filed a police report. Even without a serial number you can still identify it. If they have a name with the item stolen and they catch some dirtbag with those items they will call and have you come identidy it, or at least should.

[runco]

Leaned that lesson years ago, always locked!!!

 

What I am about to tell happened to me 20 years ago and is totally wrong, but it worked out.  Similar situation, but with a radar detector and a wallet.  The officer asked me for the s/n, but I didn't have it, and he asked me for what was in my wallet and how much money.  Honestly, there may have been a $5 and couple of CC.  In an instant, I misspoke and said I had ~$300.  Don't know why I did that.  4 months later, received a phone call from the police.  They had cracked a case, and wanted me to go to court.  A couple of boys pleaded guilty to about 10 car break-ins of which mine was included.  They had to pay restitution (my radar detector value and cash, $450).  It took a year, but I received a check.  Was I wrong, or just thinking ahead to cover my pain and suffering.

[Patton]

. After 10 years as an MP .......... .... but declined to have an officer come out and do a full report, mainly because i feel it would be a waste of that officers time. .

When I was an MP I took a case on a stolen dollar store broom.
Sorry to hear about your loss.

[c.a.willard]

yea i think my time as an MP is part of why i declined having an officer come out.  I did call just to report the event and gave the dispatcher pretty much everything they would have had in a full report.  Mainly just for their crime data mapping and trend reports.     We used to go have to do reports on the stupidest things that were a waste of everyone's time.    Had to go to one once where a lady thought some kids knocked over a pink flamingo in her yard.  What it actually was the thunderstorm that happened just a little bit before she called. 

 

My most favorite of all was a tree that fell on someones house from a storm only damaged the house and the guy had not renters insurance so it was legitimately just a housing concern. They made us do a full report on it, so i asked what shout i put in the subject line.  Desk SGT told me to put act of god.  So for the subject i put god and listed him as at large,  never had to go to one of those calls again.

[Patton]

I think you did the right thing. Call to say, I had a larceny that would be near impossible to solve but I would appreciate an extra patrol. It's no like there is a subject at large with a MO of only taking GPS.

[JWC]

Had ours broken into at our old house. Broke my wife's window prying on it i guess. Didn't get anything either. Jackwagons didn't were kind enough to leave $3000 in fishfinders sitting on my seat. I pulled them off when I ran into the grocery store the night before and they just didn't take them, morons.

The neighbor down the road chased them when he walked out on them but the guy ran faster than his old azz, lol.

Ironically it was a Sunday morning and I was fishing every Sat and Sunday morning at that time. That one particular morning I had decided to go to church b/c my niece was getting baptised. (The only time I've been in maybe 10 years)
Had I not and I had been just going fishing like always , I would've walked out very close to the time they were on their crime spree. Guess It ws divine intervention for them, me, or both of us.

[whitewolf001]

Had ours broken into at our old house. Broke my wife's window prying on it i guess. Didn't get anything either. Jackwagons didn't were kind enough to leave $3000 in fishfinders sitting on my seat. I pulled them off when I ran into the grocery store the night before and they just didn't take them, morons.

The neighbor down the road chased them when he walked out on them but the guy ran faster than his old azz, lol.

Ironically it was a Sunday morning and I was fishing every Sat and Sunday morning at that time. That one particular morning I had decided to go to church b/c my niece was getting baptised. (The only time I've been in maybe 10 years)
Had I not and I had been just going fishing like always , I would've walked out very close to the time they were on their crime spree. Guess It ws divine intervention for them, me, or both of us.

 

The good lord didn't want you to end up like ol Zimmerman.... :whistle:

[whitewolf001]

Or just shoot the son of a *****. A dead thief is the only kind of thief I can tolerate. I know some here see more value in a human life than in material, but I bust my ass everyday for anything I have. Any man that makes the decision to take it has made his choice, and if you've made the choice to steal then you staying above ground and breathing doesn't matter to me. Maybe if more thieves were shoot or hung we wouldn't have these problems. Sorry about your things OP, I hate a damn thief.

sent from the backwoods

I don't think we should go far as to execute em, just take a finger, it happens again then take a hand, third strike, well, you're out back of the courthouse where a ropes waiting on ya. That'll teach em not to steal, I hope. Worked back in the ol days.

[TMF]

This seems to big a huge trend here in Clarksville. Always high school aged kids. I remember a year or two ago two cases in one week where a homeowner caught the punks in the act and detained them for police. One of the cases involved the homeowner holding a group of them at gunpoint while he waited on police, then the mother of one of these dirtbags was quoted in the Chronicle as saying that was unnecessary and wrong or something. Goes to show that the reason the ahole kids do this is because they have ahole crappy parents. If my son ever did anything like that the last thing I would do is talk smack about the victim defending his property.

Seems to happen a lot off of Tiny Town road.

[Tncobra]

Make sure to input "home" on your GPS. If recovered, the look on a suspects face is priceless.

[Wyldk2]

I actually was victimized a few years ago. Went riding( bicycle) at Hamilton Creek park. Stupid me left my wallet in the center console and a camera case out in the passenger seat. I have tinted windows so i didn't think anyone would see at the time. They (MNPD) never caught the crooks but a few months down the road they called me and i did get a few items in my wallet back. Luckily i caught the breakin in time, stopped all credit cards i had at that time and i had some money stashed in the car for times like this.

 

Won't let it happen again though, but the crooks will strike wherever and whenever they can. Wish we could defend property like we can defend our lives. I really hate thieves.

[Guest AmericanWorkMule]

This part highly irritates me.

Why in the world is what should be highly protected information contained in a unsecured environment?
We would be fired, and possibly prosecuted, in a second in the private sector for doing this.

 

Thankfully they did not take my wife's work computer from the back of her car.  She is a social worker that works with the aged and disabled and that laptop contains a lot of personally identifying information on her clients.  Names, addresses, SSN's,  Finances all sorts of stuff.  Not sure why she left it in the car but i don't think she is likely to again. 

[c.a.willard]

It's called she made a mistake, knows better and has learned from this lesson