12
Sep
2016
By Calvin at 09:27 GMT, 9 years ago
Over the weekend I received a right royal rollicking email from a chap called Ian (name changed to protect the innocent) who was, in effect, blaming me for the theft from his car.
Now before you start to form an opinion about my trustworthiness and possible nighttime criminal activity I have plenty of alibis that prove I was eating a curry at a restaurant in Gerrards Cross with my wife and three friends when the crime took place – and it was a good curry too.
So let me explain: Ian had been on my website over the summer months looking to see what he might do to improve the security of the house he had just moved into. Amongst other things, he decided to upgrade the outside lighting around the property and had installed two new dusk-to-dawn operated lamps onto the porch extension. He lives in a small town/large village and they turn the street lamps off at midnight and so he thought, quite rightly, that the addition of some modest lighting out the front would be a good idea.
Just one week after the electrician had finished the job his car, which had been parked on the hard standing right under the lights, was broken into. At about 11.30 pm the thief smashed the passenger side window, grabbed the bag in the foot well (and some lose change) and ran off up the road. The car alarm went off, of course, which woke Ian up and he tells me he was outside within 45 seconds.
The bag had contained his sat-nav, its mounting arm and charging lead, a couple of Ordnance Survey maps of Cornwall, a tire pressure gauge, a couple of pens and some chewing gum (un-chewed). The replacement value of this stuff was about £175, but the thief would have been lucky to get more than £20.
Ian scratched his head a little and came up with the theory that had he not put up the lights the car and its contents would not have been seen and the crime would not have happened. He vented his feelings to me by email and suggested that I might like to change my advice.
I wrote back to him and said something along these lines:
The way I see it is this Ian: You broke the golden rule about car security and that is that you should never leave anything on view in an unoccupied vehicle during the day or night wherever that vehicle might be parked. By doing so you place temptation in front of a person who might be desperate for his or hers next drink or drug.
They will know that the alarm is probably going to be activated when the smash the window and lean in to grab the gear, but as this will all happen within ten seconds they will have ample time to have it on their toes and be away.
I agree with you that the new lighting made it easier to see the stuff you’d left in the car, but equally the lighting could just as easily have shown the thief that there was nothing in the car to steal. The new lighting’s advantages far outweigh this small disadvantage, but one that you, yourself, created.
So please remember everyone that whilst outside lighting is an essential part of good all-round home security, it is only a part and there are other aspects that are equally as important.
Following a strict locking up routine at night is one of them (See KOPCAR below) and so is ensuring that your vehicle is always empty of stuff that might be attractive to a car thief. A completely empty and tidy car has always been my policy and, touch wood and whistle; I have yet to suffer a similar crime to Ian’s.
The nights are drawing in a lot earlier now and so now is the time that you should be actually installing those new lamps that you said you were going to do during the summer!
Further advice:
Reducing theft from vehicles: http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/vehicle-security/638/reducing-theft-from-vehicles/
Security lighting: http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/gardens-lighting-access-and-alarms/495/security-lighting/
Security routine at night (KOPCAR) http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/home-security-assessment/711/security-routine-at-night/
