Everyone likes their GPS System, Ipod, and Lap Top. However, the more interactive our cars become the bigger bulls-eye they have on them for thieves. These high tech, easy to lift, goodies are becoming mainstays on police reports. This article talks about the growing concern and some prevention tips for protecting your property–Marty O’Neill, Insurance Agent
© 2008 Buffalo News. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.
Pat Jensen never really got to know her global positioning system device.
Her children had bought a GPS unit for her in December because of what she admits is her “really bad sense of direction.”
On Jan. 5, while her son was visiting a friend on Mariner Street in Buffalo, someone smashed a window and broke into her Volkswagen Passat. The thief took the GPS device, her son’s video iPod, a Dell laptop and a $175 pair of sunglasses.
“I literally had just gotten it for Christmas. I had it in the car for just a day or two. I had used it one time. Bummer,” said Jensen, who is in her 40s and runs a nonprofit organization.
The Delaware District resident is a victim of the latest trend in car break-ins — GPS thefts.
Portable GPS receivers cost several hundred dollars or more and they were among the hottest consumer-electronic gifts of the recent holiday season.
So it’s no surprise that thieves are targeting them in car break- ins, police said, grabbing them right off the windshield or from glove compartments and other hiding places.
“The GPSs are just the item of the day, so to speak,” said University at Buffalo Police Chief Gerald W. Schoenle Jr.
Police in Buffalo, Amherst and Niagara Falls and at UB have seen a spike in thefts of these portable navigation units.
No longer satisfied with taking the car stereo, thieves are stealing GPS devices, cell phones, MP3 players and other electronic gadgets.
The Erie County Sheriff’s Office, for example, is investigating the thefts of six GPS units late Saturday and early Sunday in just one Clarence subdivision.
“It’s a target. It’s like leaving a bull’s-eye on your car. ‘Come steal me,’ ” said Patrol Chief Dennis Rankin.
Police are stepping up efforts to crack down on these break-ins, while cautioning users to be more aware of the potential for theft.
And some technology experts say the companies that make these devices need to do more to make it harder for thieves to resell or reuse them.
“As there is more crime, the manufacturers are going to step in,” said Ken Westin, founder of GadgetTrak, a company in Portland, Ore., that sells software that can be installed in electronic devices to help their rightful owners find them if they are stolen.
GPS devices were always popular with the technologically inclined, but last year they took off as a mainstream gadget.
About 6.5 million portable navigation devices were expected to be sold in this country in 2007, a sharp increase over the 2.1 million sold in 2006, according to the IDC market research firm.
GPS devices are becoming hot items for car thieves, too.
Police in Boston, Mass., suburban Miami, Lancaster, Pa., suburban Washington, D.C., Baltimore and northern New Jersey have seen an uptick in GPS thefts, according to recent news reports.
In Buffalo, 47 GPS units were reported stolen in 2007, and 19 were reported taken in the first six weeks of 2008 alone, according to a police database.
“I didn’t know this was going on. Now I’m afraid to leave anything in the car,” said Deanna Mesmer, a Grand Island resident and co-owner of a paper distributing company, whose GPS device was stolen Jan. 18.
Mesmer was at Mother’s restaurant on Virginia Place when her son called her cell phone to tell her someone had found her checkbook in the street and had called their house.
It turns out a thief had smashed the window of her Mercury Mountaineer and ransacked the SUV. The thief stole her $300 purse, an iPod, a camera and her GPS.
UB had 55 car break-ins on its two campuses in 2007 and 10 involved GPS units, said Schoenle, the police chief.
Since Sept. 1, 12 GPS units have been reported stolen in Amherst, town Police Capt. Enzio G. Villalta said.
“That seems to be the new hot item,” Villalta said.
Thieves will take anything of value, even change, but electronic devices are particularly desirable, police said, because they can be easily reused or sold for cash.
“These are all crimes of opportunity. It just takes a few seconds,” said Dennis J. Richards, chief of detectives for the Buffalo police.
A 2007 report from the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center — titled “Is There an iCrime Wave?” — argues that the proliferation of iPods and other electronic devices is boosting crime rates.
“They’re easy to resell, they’re easy to reuse, and they’re expensive. And they’re high-status,” said John Roman, senior researcher at the Washington, D.C.-based group, who co-wrote the study with Aaron Chalfin.
Some victims who spoke to The Buffalo News believe their cars were selected because thieves saw the GPS devices in their cars, or had reason to believe they were there.
“It’s an easy target. It’s right there on the windshield,” said Jean-Pierre Tran, 20, a Buffalo State College student who lives on Niagara Street.
He said he had stopped at his grandfather’s home on nearby Hampshire Street to take a quick nap after school on Jan. 18 when someone broke into his car to take the GPS device, his iPod and laptop.
Tran had had the GPS for a week. “It’s sad that I can’t leave anything in my car in the middle of the day,” he said.
Tamala Rohler, an Erie, Pa., resident, was in Buffalo with her family because her 12-year-old daughter’s hockey team was playing at Cazenovia Park rink.
She and her husband had purchased a $500 TomTom One in late 2006 after getting lost trying to get to a rink in Rochester.
On Jan. 27, the Rohlers had parked their minivan and had given their car keys to an attendant in order to get a key to a locker there.
After 2 1/2 hours inside, the Rohlers returned to find someone had stolen their GPS device, a cell phone, portable DVD player, an MP3 player and two digital cameras from their van.
“You feel so violated,” said Rohler, who said there was no sign of a break-in.
Many victims, like Tran and Rohler, had more than one device stolen, losing hundreds of dollars or more.
Some drivers have taken the GPS devices off and hidden them in glove compartments or elsewhere in the vehicle, but that’s not enough, police said; users should detach and hide the GPS holders, too.
“The bracket is an invitation — they have a GPS. Maybe they left it in the car, in the glove compartment, under the seat,” said Niagara Falls Police Capt. John P. DeMarco.
Police in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and at UB’s South Campus have boosted patrols in response to a rash of car break-ins, and UB hasn’t seen a car break-in so far this year.
The GPS manufacturers need to do more to make the devices harder to steal or reuse, said Westin of GadgetTrak and the Urban Institute’s Roman.
Westin noted that the companies that produce car radios responded to a rise in those thefts by introducing the removable radio face.
Preventing car break-ins and GPS thefts
- Park in a well lit area and always lock the doors and close the windows.
- Use an alarm system.
- Remove the GPS device from the vehicle, including the windshield mount. Don’t leave out in the open a purse, laptop or other potential prize for thieves.
* Register your unit with the manufacturer so if it is stolen you have a serial number. Sources: Insurance Information Institute; National Insurance Crime Bureau.