Mayayana wrote:

"Mark Lloyd" wrote

| I remember that (no need to lock doors) from when I was a child. It
| would be nice to live in a place like that again.
|

There's actually been a pattern of breakins
in suburban Boston lately: People go into
unlocked cars and steal whatever may be useful.
I was amazed at how many people have no car
alarm, or at least don't use it, and don't lock
their car overnight. I lock it just to go into the
bank. I don't want anyone stealing my crank
window hardware.

Or your old radio that has those pushbuttons: the mechanical ones that
moved the dial needle to a station (e.g. http://tinyurl.com/y9fochuw).

A long time ago, some boob tried to pry open my moonroof (mechanical
popup on the rear, hinged on the front, no electric motor. He didn't
get in that way but he damaged the metal body all around the moonroof.
Then he smashed in the driver's window. What did he steal? Yep, the
mechanical pushbutton AM/FM radio. No Bluetooth (wasn't around back
then), no electrical contact switches for buttons, no digital tuning, no
disc player, or USB port (also not available back then), and no
high-power amp. Just a super cheap (probably $29 back then) AM/FM
mechanical pushbutton radio. He damaged the dash while wrangling out
the radio and thought he had to yank out the glove compartment door to
get behind the radio. The whole dash got replaced (was a LOT easier
back then to remove the dash). This happened many decades ago. Other
than at flea markets or swap meets, I'm not sure you could even buy a
radio like that nowadays. I'm sure there are some places for car buffs
that want to stock their restored oldies with original-like gear.

The cops wanted my insurance report for the total cost of the damage.
The radio was miniscule for its value. I asked them why they cared.
The guy had gone around the neighborhood breaking into other cars, too,
and they wanted to amass a total damage value to move his crime into
some higher category with more intense consequences. I told the cop
that if he wanted that crappy radio that bad that I would've left my
doors unlock and my windows open and even prep for its removal. That
was the most basic stock radio I could get with the car back then
because I planned to replace it; however, the boob beat me to its
removal although in a rather a damaging way.

The insurance guy looked askance at me when I filed the report. He
stopped being suspicious when I added the cost for the roof and dash
damage. I asked why he was leery and he said "radio-only theft" often
occurs by owners that want to upgrade but they don't destroy their dash
making the radio disappear. While my deductible was only $50 back then,
I told him the type of radio and I could care less if it was in the car
or not. In fact, when I ordered the car (yeah, back then I never bought
off the lot), I didn't want a radio but couldn't order a car without one
(unless the dealer removed it upon delivery but that wouldn't save me
any money).

The police recommend NOT leaving your smartphone in your car. It's an
attractive target for smash-and-grab thieves. They carry a spring-
loaded steel punch, press it against a side window, whack, the glass
crumbles, and they dive in grabbing whatever they find. If they can see
something through the windows, that's their first target and might be
what spurred them to break into your car. I will be using my old
smartphone as a dashcam. It will get stowed in the center console when
I leave the car and put into the windshield holder only when I get back
in to use it. But other items can spur a break-in, like purses, money,
USB drives, shopping bags, etc.