GPS food for thought

Someone had their car broken into while they were at a sporting event. Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the stadium and specially allotted to fans. Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard. When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen. The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house. They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.

Something to consider if you have a GPS - don't put your home address in it... Put a nearby address (like a store or gas station) so you can still find your way home if you need to, but no one else would know where you live if your GPS were stolen.

chas521 wrote:Someone had their car broken into while they were at a sporting event. Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the stadium and specially allotted to fans. Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard. When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen. The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house. They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.

Something to consider if you have a GPS - don't put your home address in it... Put a nearby address (like a store or gas station) so you can still find your way home if you need to, but no one else would know where you live if your GPS were stolen.

Wow, when you think about it a pretty obvious scenario.

Thanks for the sound advice chas521. I for one have now removed my home address from my device.

This is not just obvious but also very old.
Back in Germany when the first GPS systems came out cars where targeted on rest areas during the holiday season.
Same story here in AU, people on a holiday trip or simple bushwalk find the car broken in to and the GPS and other things gone.
During the holidays this is the main access for bad people wanting to make some quick cash money.
Often they not only get the correct address and keys for the house but also some ID card for the alarm system.
So even the alarm goes off, they call the company, state the reference number on the card and the alarm is disregarded.
By the time the victim has it sorted the house is empty.
But the latest trend is now to target smartphones and tablets as most people do all their banking and private stuff with it.
So you have the added bonus that not only house is cleaned out but also your identity stolen and your bank accounts emtied out.

In the end it all goes back to lazy people.
As long as closed cars exists people are warned not to leave valuable stuff inside the car or to at least put it in the boot.
Some countries now turn the law around on lazy people:
For example in Germany, Denmark and several other EU countries the owner of car is in trouble if he leaves it open or even the keys in the ignition while getting smokes, paying for petrol and so on.
The result is a hefty fine and a police record for supporting to steal a motor vehicle.
Many crooks see a GPS as a quick 20 bucks others as the key to ransack a home - do you think being lazy is worth that? ;)

It doesn't hurt to repeat the advice. History can only be repeated if a person doesn't learn from it.

lol...i have my home location set to a neighbors house who i don't like
if my TT get's nicked...hopefully my neighbor get's robbed

cpf1 wrote:lol...i have my home location set to a neighbors house who i don't like
if my TT get's nicked...hopefully my neighbor get's robbed

I guess that's a good way to get even.