Sun crime beat reporter Bill Bird wrote yet another story recently about a series of vehicle burglaries, this time 20 vehicles on the southeast side broken into and valuables like cell phones and iPods taken.
I say broken into, but since all the vehicles were unlocked, a criminal doesn't have to be especially skilled to pull off one of these crimes.
Every day there are a few car burglaries on The Sun's police blotter, with hundreds of incidents reported in a given year. In a surprising number of the cases, the vehicles were not locked, and valuables were in plain sight.
Lock your doors and hide your valuables. This isn't hard to figure out. Why do our residents have so much trouble following these common-sense steps to protect their property?
People are stupid.
Personally, I'd rather leave my doors unlocked. If someone wants to steal something in my car, I'd prefer they just open the door and take it instead of breaking a window. I don't leave anything valuable in plain sight, but regardless... Getting a new iPod is a matter of paying my deductible and visiting amazon.com.
A few years ago when my car was broken in to, the thieves took a crowbar to the rear hatch to get it open, leaving all kinds of pry marks and breaking tons of glass and plastics in the process to steal a bag of old golf clubs I'd bought at one of those big charity garage sales the day before for $25.
Following that, I had to drive around with a garbage bag taped over my rear window for 3 days, then wait 2.5 weeks while my car rang up a repair bill at the body shop just shy of $10,000.
What level of skill is required to use a hammer, brick, rock, or any other object capable of breaking glass? I think by leaving my doors unlocked I'm doing my part to keep insurance premiums low, since the replacement value of absolutely everything I keep inside my car that would be worth stealing is far below the repair cost of a single window.I think that's the biggest misconception people have about people who steal things from cars is it doesn't take any skill at all. Your common thief isn't like Nicholas Cage in Gone in 60 Seconds, getting copies of laser cut keys and using PDA's to crack your car's alarm.
No, they're just punks who knows they can smash your window, grab whatever you want, and be gone by the time your car alarm has been going off long enough for someone to stop ignoring it. (And seriously, when was the last time you heard a car alarm and did anything but roll your eyes?) They know they can take anything they want and the police will never do anything other than offer to file a report to make an insurance claim.
Where has this world gotten to when it is too much trouble to lock vehicle doors? I guess that the extra time it takes to unlock the vehicle (all 5 or 6 seconds) does take us away from important things like our wine tasting or tennis game. Someone should invent an enclosure that can be sealed and in which a vehicle owner can place the vehicle to keep it safe and unlocked. This place, I’ll call it a garage, can be attached or separate from the house. If that was not possible, then maybe someone create a keyless remote entry system so we could unlock the car before we get to it.
The potential perpetrator that is just looking to get into a car to take something out will look for an unlocked car – easy pickings. A locked car requires a noisy implement like a rock or pry bar to get into it causing a noise that most people in Naperville don’t normally hear. Those people would most likely go to a window or door to see what happened.
I think the key is not to leave anything valuable (or apparently valuable) in your car regardless of whether you lock it. You don't often hera of car windows being shattered without anything being taken. Maybe it's just that there are a lot of forgetful people, but if I had a dime for every time the Sun has reported the theft of wallets, laptops, cell phones, iPods and/or GPS devices from cars I'd have...well, lots and lots of dimes.
Duh...Why do you think they put locks on doors and alarm systems on a lot of cars. The little weasels are looking for "something for nothing" instead of working for their ill-gotten-gains. LOCK `EM UP... Your doors too. Easier than telling your insurance company you didn`t think too much of your property by not securing it.
2 weeks ago I was sitting on my balcony on the southeast end of Naperville at about 8:30pm and watched 5 little punks drive up on bicycles, hide their bicycles near a dumpster and walk up to my car and my neighbor's car. They had their hands on the door handles and I stood up and said what the hell are you doing? They freaked out and ran but before they got on their bikes and rode away one of them said "I KNOW YOU WEREN'T TALKING TO ME!" I looked at him and said "oh you know I WAS talking to you". They proceeded to get on their bikes and drive away screaming "YOU FAT HONKY B***, YOU FAT HONKY SL*T, F U YOU FAT HONKY WH*RE". So not only did I bust them commiting a crime, but then had to have racial slurs hurled at me.
I grew up on the southside of Chicago. I never had reason to call the police. I've lived in Naperville 7 years and have to call them all the time. Hmmmmm.
Yeah, the kids around here have a lot of nerve. One group was skateboarding in the middle of the street, rather than hit them with our car, we honked the horn to warn them that we were approaching - their reaction? "I wish you would!" with hands raised up in the air like little gang bangers. Ummm, ok? Where are the parents of these brats??
Thieves know that the police are really rather ineffective at preventing crime, acting more like glorified secretaries by merely filling out forms after the crime's been committed rather than catching criminals in the act. Making matters worse is the judicial system that routinely only slaps these criminals on the hands. Like "Napervillian" above, I too grew up on the south side of Chicago. I was involved in an attempted carjacking there in an alley some years ago by some scumbag who tried to pull me out of my car. Surprise, surprise. Little did he expect to carjack someone who was trained in karate! Ten seconds and a few broken bones later, the would-be carjacker lay in the alley while I drove away. No police reports, no legal fees, and no crowding of the judge's docket. And I can guarantee you that the carjacker paid the price by my personally taking it out on his hide and learned a valuable lesson through many months of healing. I would repeat that scenario any time I'd catch someone breaking into my car.
Anonymous @ 7:44 pm: The parents of said brats are at their wine tasting or golf outing, leaving their car doors unlocked. Oh, the irony.
What insurance do you have that will cover the contents of a car when you leave the door unlocked?
Without giving too much details (the suckers may just read this blog) They were just getting started in our subdivision. NPD knows what and who they are looking for. I just hope they find them. Obviously that same day, they went to Southeast Naperville to finish the job.
Simple - lock your doors. If you don't, you have nothing to be mad about or complain about. As these idiots checked the car doors that were locked, they simply walked away.
By ron on June 16, 2009 12:08 PM
People are stupid.
yep, people are stupid.
People who live in a civilized society should not need to lock anything.
Parents need to be responsible for their children and know where they are and what they are doing. Let's not forget that the majority of items that are stolen like this have been taken for the purpose of converting the item to cash. That means that these children need to stash the good somewhere and then they need to find someone who is willing to give them something for what they have stolen.
This is part of parental responsibility again to know what your children have bought, who they bought it from, how much they paid, etc.
The fewer opportunities these kids have to complete the deal successfully the less petty crime there will be.
Maybe it's time the NPD woke up and realized there is a whole other side of town south Washington and Ogden.
'People who live in a civilized society should not need to lock anything.'
Umm, I guess according to your definition we don't live in a civilized society.
Yep, people are stupid.
What insurance do you have that will cover the contents of a car when you leave the door unlocked?
Actually they all do. Removing items from a locked or unlocked car is still burglary and is covered by insurance.
Karate Kid, do you really think we believe you are some big bad #@# who beat up a car jacker. C'mon, the CPD would not even take a burglary to a car if it was from an unlocked vehicle. If you not to old and warn out from your days of street fighting in the Shy, then you should become a cop, you know what its all about. I love the war stories though, keep them coming.
Wax on Wax off,
I really don't care whether or not you believe my story about meting out justice to the carjacker. Choose to believe whatever you want. What I know for sure is that the police were nowhere to be found to "serve and protect," there was no denying who the perpetrator was (I caught him in the act), and he paid the price in ways he won't soon forget. I don't believe in becoming a victim; so when a thug is out to steal from me, I can assure you that I make sure it's the thug that gets victimized instead. I can assure you that most citizens who question fighting back against the thugs would be thinking differently if it was their wife or daughter who was the victim on the street and I came to their rescue against the thug. I can also assure you that once the carjacker healed and regained the use of his hands, he assuredly thought twice about using those hands to attempt the same crime on another innocent driver. As for your comments about becoming a cop -- never. Cops aren't allowed, by law, to even the odds in ways that I can; so I'm not a bit interested.
Anonymous, the sociopathic parents of these little snots are walking up and down the street with their designer dogs telling everyone what great parents they are and bashing the neighbors who know what the brats are up to.
Ex-Chicagoan, I love your story and hope it is true that you "took care" of that hoodlum. That's what should happen to every one of these vicious crooks preying on innocent people.
Concealed carry. Believe it. Demand it. A good number of years ago when I lived near downtown Naperville, my dog alerted me at about 0300. I looked out my bedroom window and two or three were standing next to my car off the alley with a hose and gas can. I too yelled out at them to move away from the car. And they also yelled back a bunch of obscenities. By the time I made it down stairs and to the alley in just my jockeys and my 6" Smith, they were driving off. They were not too far for a couple of good potential hits but of course, the circumstances did not dictate deadly force. Overshoot was clear however. So Wax on Wax off and Huh?, you have got to understand that eventually you will mess with the wrong people.
1) People really are stupid. The really are the worst.
2) Napervillian - good restraint on your part. The right thing to do would be crack those kids upside the head and put the fear of God in them. Unfortunately you would go to jail for that these days.
3) Let's talk about the absent parents of these kids. Where are you parents? Typing on a blog at 10:39 at night? Take an interest in your kids for goodness sakes.
4) In which subdivision are all these activities happening?
People really are stupid. The really are the worst
Where are you parents? Typing on a blog at 10:39 at night? Take an interest in your kids for goodness sakes.
Shouldn't it read, "THEY really are the worst"? (ironic huh, commenting on stupidity and misspelling the punch line?)
By 10:39 at night my kids have been asleep for 2 hours.
It sure should. My guess is the masses got it as we have all typed quickly in the past.
They really are the worst. Better?
Open garage thefts are on the rise too. I had a group of middle schoolers run in my garage, storm the fridge/freezer, and take off with a box of freeze pops. My husband ran out and said to Drop It, and they did and ran three different ways.
If these are your kids, let them know that we will call the police on them and its not funny. You need to keep track of your children!! This is not the first time our fridge was stolen from right in front of our eyes. What is next? Cars? Wait until they steal at high school....Dont be surprised when the Dean calls and the police get involved. It wont be so funny anymore.