Hide your GPS, before someone steals it

Last summer, the San Francisco Examiner ran a story that described about how thieves were grabbing portable GPS units out of cars. They’re still doing it.

According to “Auto break-in epidemic hits South City,” published in August 2007, auto break-ins in South San Francisco were up more than 30 percent, as crooks targeted GPSes — and that such thefts can happen really fast:

In a knit cap and dark clothing, a man walked up to a car parked in the South San Francisco Police Department parking lot and shattered the driver’s-side window with a common tool. As glass rained onto the concrete, he unlocked the door and snatched the GPS device suctioned to the front window. The crook — played by Officer John Stankewicz in the simulation — took only 30 seconds to grab the device and get away.

This issue surfaced today, when a good friend reported that her Garmin GPS was stolen, in broad daylight, from a public parking lot in the Bay Area. How? Someone smashed a window and took it.

Never leave the GPS, or its cable or a suction-cup mount visible in plain sight. Lock them in the glove box, the trunk, or other storage area. If the hardware or its accessories are visible, your car is a target.