Someone broke into my car on Saturday night.
It was in my driveway, and I guess maybe when I hit the lock button on my key ring, it didn't take. I came out to my car on Sunday morning and the drivers side door was open a crack. The entire contents of my glove compartment and center console had been spilled all over the drivers and passengers seats.
They got away with a pair of Rayban sunglasses, a 60GB 5th Generation iPod, and the GTA 4 soundtrack (From the collectors edition of the game.)
I filed a police report just because I figured it would be a good idea to have a police car in my driveway in case it was local kids that did it. I changed the light bulbs in the lights right outside my garage (Which had been out for about a year.) and I plan on keeping them on 24/7 now just so there's light where I park the cars.
I was wondering if that's all I should do or if there are any other steps that I'm missing?
I can't file a claim with my insurance company because the combined value of the stuff stolen is exactly equal to my deductible, so there's no real point.
Posts
If you have any shrubs obstructing the view from the street to your car you might consider trimmming those back.
Also, you might want to find out if a rash of similar incident have been happening in your area. If so, you might want to look into getting a crime watch setup.
As for the police report, theres pretty much nothing else you can do
I say for the day, because during the night, any car activity would be suspicious to others.
B.net: Kusanku
I've been thinking about the motion detectors. Do they have any that install into light fixtures that are already there? (Like an adapter for any regular light socket?) We're renting the house so I'd want to do it in a way that doesn't change things too much. At least until we're sure we want to buy the place.
It's not on a hill but that's a damn good idea if I ever move to a place that is on a hill.
I thought the exact same thing
File a claim anyway, so that your deductible will be a lot lower if anything else happens in the next year.
In the future, never leave anything in your car.
Unless you filing a claim moves your residency into a higher risk threshold which would then increase your premiums...
MWO: Adamski
Aren't insurance deductibles per incident? So even if he filed a claim for this incident, if his car were broken into again next month, he'd still have to pay his deductible when he claims that. It being a separate claim and all.
Here was my next suggestion. You call them, tell 'em what was taken, and give them your Police report record number. If you happen to have the serial number of the iPod, provide that too.
The police here in Madison have a running list of all the pawn shops and their phone numbers. Your local dept might have something similar. There are a lot more than you'd think about. This could include places that deal only in used music, etc.
Finally, change your habits, if you haven't already. Stop leaving valuables in the car. Take 'em in with you. Get a carrying case to put your "stealables" in, and take it with you instead of having to deal w/ individual items.
I don't believe it - I'm on my THIRD PS3, and my FIRST XBOX360. What the heck?
Other than filing a police report and insurance claim, nothing you really can do.
You might be able to use something like this to add motion detection to the light you already have. It depends on what kind of fixture it is. It also might be really easy (and possibly cheaper) to swap out the fixtures with motion detecting ones without doing anything that you can't change back when you move depending on the fixture. If you take a picture of the light I could probably offer more specific advice.
Correct. Not the same as medical insurance. Deductibles on auto insurance claims are per claim.
Do you have home insurance? It might be worth trying that. I know that with the policies I deal with, stuff within the boundaries of your property (i.e. in your driveway) still counts, though there's a limit that applies to "contents left outside".
I'm going to go with the more simple lock your doors and make sure they actually locked.
Bad news: Police couldn't do anything, I had to repair the window and it cost me over $200.
Good news: They stole my dirty laundry.
Not much you can do about petty theft.
My mother got HER car broken into (as in literally, a window broken) and CDs stolen, and then our house got robbed. Overall, nothing really happened except us moving...