Since I got my current car from my brother, I’ve left it unlocked almost all the time. Only when I’ve had band equipment or the like in there have I considered locking it. The locks, except the one on the back hatch, froze up and stopped working a while back (one was frozen when I got the car), so it’s hard to lock it anyway: I’d have to climb in from the rear hatch. At the beginning, I even left the key in the car, as that is what my brother had been doing for a while, but I gave up on that out of fear.
As far as I know and can recall, nothing was stolen, even the change left clearly visible.
So today, I went to the library for several hours. There’s a parking garage there. Normally, employees are there and it has gates, costs a ridiculous amount of money. But on the weekends it is free and the gates are left open. When I left my car, I actually glanced in and thought about someone stealing something, as I frequently do. I took my cell phone along, but everything else seemed like it would be fine. Why would someone choose an old rusted car like mine anyway?
When I came back to the car, I quickly noticed the door wasn’t fully closed (driver’s). The thought of a someone being in my car flashed into my head. It become more realistic as I noticed the rearview mirror had been knocked out of place. Then I saw some change from the center console missing. I was still not totally sure at that point, thinking perhaps that I had removed the change there and some other missing stuff at some point. But I was sure when I noticed the case for my jumper cables was missing. I never remove that from my car, save for in use.
So, stolen were:
- Jumper cables, with a case, a screwdriver, some fuses and other assorted car stuff packed in
- change from my console and floor, but not from the thing on my dash or the ashtray
- my photochromatic cycling sunglasses. luckily they were all smeared with some gunk, so the thief will have some cleaning to do. cost me $40
- my socket set. Craftsmen laser engraved kind, maybe a 96 piece one that I got on sale for like $60. Had some cheap taiwan wrenches and a few other tools in there as well
This is all I know about, as my car is somewhat of a mess, and I’m not exactly sure what all was in there.
I guess I should’ve expected it to happen one day. I imagine the tools or the change to be the biggest drawer. The change would have been by far the most visible, as the tools were tucked underneath the pink panther’s feet in the back seat foot area. I have no intention of locking in the future, mainly because of the extreme difficulty of doing so with this car, but also because of the crappiness deterrent of the car and lack of valuable things.
I may be slow to replace the missing items. I can make up for the sunglasses with cheap spare pares I have for now. They were nice for cycling, but I didn’t use them a whole ton. The tools, I’ll have to borrow for now. I don’t use them that often currently anyway. I’ll wait till I see another good deal on them and need seems high. The jumper cables I’ll probably get soon just to be safe, though I rarely need them and others often have them if I do.
[Update] The sunglasses weren’t stolen: I had just left them in the sailboat. So I’ve got my good sunglasses still. Just no sockets or wrenches or jumper cables.