Our Community in Fairfax County, Virginia
A car is stolen about every 21 seconds in North America, making auto theft one of the nation's most costly property crimes.
No vehicle is theft-proof, but there are things you can do to reduce the risk of returning to an empty parking space. The U.S. Car Care Council recommends four layers of defense to thwart would-be car thieves:
The common sense approach. This is the simplest, most cost-effective way to deter auto theft. Anytime you leave your car:
Police officers from Police Service Area 400 (PSA400) showed up in force at our October 2001 General Meeting. Led by Sgt. Alan Hansan, officer Chip Conner, and detective Willeman, they provided a variety of useful information to protect our homes and vehicles from burglars.
In our area, home burglaries most often occur on weekdays between 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. In a typical case, a burglar will walk around the neighborhood, knock on doors, pry open a window if nobody is home, grab whatever he can, and leave. Nighttime burglaries are much less common and tend to occur as part of more serious crimes such as assault.
There are a variety of things that we can do to discourage home burglars. The best thing is to call Mason District Station at 703-256-8035 and arrange to have the police conduct a free home security survey of your house. Some of the suggestions that they have include:
Auto tampering is another serious problem in our area. The criminals often move like waves from one neighborhood to another, breaking into vehicles and stealing anything that might be of value.
It is easy for thieves to break a car window or use an illegal passkey to open the door. To discourage auto tampering or theft, consider the following advice:
As to cooler weather approaches, we tend to leave our windows open to let the outside air cool our homes. In the past five years, fall burglaries have been through the rear door or opened window. They mostly occur during the daytime on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Take preventive measures by installing locking pins in window panes, leaving a radio on, putting timers on lights, and getting more involved in neighborhood watch.
I target the homes that look like the easiest to break into. I commit most of my home burglaries during the day, which is why I shy away from areas with daytime Neighborhood Watch patrols. I walk or drive by homes looking for newspaper or mail build-up, missing cars, and landscaping to hide in near doors or windows.
Sliding glass doors are easy to break into if the owners don't use a Charlie Bar or pin the door. Breaking in doors with deadbolts or windows that are pinned is risky because of the noise I have to make. I avoid houses with home alarm signs, especially if I can see that the doors and windows have electronic sensors. I usually can make friends with smaller dogs, but loud barking dogs in the back yard are discouraging.
I like to window shop to find out which homes have valuables worth stealing. Although timed lights can make it hard to tell that a home is vacant, I really appreciate people who leave their window shades up so I can both window shop and verify that nobody is moving around inside. When I do work at night, I avoid homes with outdoor lighting, and motion detector lights in particular.
My kids like to vandalize the neighborhood during the evening. Their only real concern is the presence of evening Neighborhood Watch patrols and residents who do not hesitate to report suspicious activity to the police.
Fortunately for me and my kids, many people are unwilling to call the police when they see suspicious activity. They either are afraid to get involved, even anonymously, or they do not want to involve the police without clear evidence of a crime in progress.
(Thanks to Officer Dave Cox for providing this information.)