Good tips I was just Emailed....

[WCGreen]

GPS
A couple had their car broken into while they were at a football game.
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.


MOBILE PHONES

This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on
her mobile phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag, which
contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet... Etc...was stolen.

20 minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling
him what had happened, hubby says 'I received your text asking
about our Pin number and I've replied a little while ago.'

When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them the
money was already withdrawn. The thief had actually used the stolen
cell phone to text 'hubby' in the contact list and got hold of the pin
number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn money from their
bank account.

[BeFree]

1. heh, new saying

Live by electronics, die by electronics.

[snagglepuss]

2. Excellent advice. Thanks for posting.

[NYCGirl]

3. Snopes points out that the stories are most likely apocryphal, it's still good to

be careful.

http://www.snopes.com/crime/intent/gps.asp

[WCGreen]

4. Most of these are...

Everyman tales...

But it seems more likely to sink in if the advice is personalized.

[tandot]

5. Good tips. Also, don't leave your GPS or any other gadgets in plain sight

Sometimes, they just break into your car to get those. Remove the GPS including its holder/suction mount from the window. If the suction mount left a ring on your window, wipe that clean. The ring is a sign for some thieves that you have a GPS and that you probably just put it in your glove box.

Also, make sure that you don't have anything in your car that gives away your address. Even if you remove your address from your GPS, if you have a letter (or title etc.) with your address in your car, thieves can still get to your house. Even better - take the garage door opener with you.

Those are all tips from a local TV station after we had many break-ins in some shopping centers in our area.

[NJmaverick]

6. Yes they are

[Nye Bevan]

7. OK, after reading that story I will reprogram "Home" on my GPS

to the address of the annoying guy across the street. :D

[Bozita]

8. Your garage door would open when clicking from across the street.

Some thieves use 5-6 stolen openers and try them all while driving slowly down residential streets.

[freeplessinseattle]

9. good advice, but if you have your registration in the glovebox

with your current address then they can just use that, if they know how to read a map.

The garage door opener is a definite easy burglar assist, don't know what to say about that except try to get an extra good lock on the inner garage door to the house. scary.

[WCGreen]

10. Well, you're never going to be completly safe...

[freeplessinseattle]

11. but could be a good excuse when pulled over

to not have registration handy. I don't know about other states, just WA, but when you get pulled over (not that it's happened to me a lot, just a couple times for speeding) the drill is "license, registration, proof of insurance" which I of course fumbled around for. Could have said I was being crafty trying to hide it from thieves, hmmm...

[Liberty Belle]

12. If you have an alarm on your house, you'd be okay.