Top 10 Security Tips for Cars During Holidays | Mr. Locksmith Blog
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1- Lock Your Car
2- No gifts in plain site
3- Car Alarm
4- Parking Lights or no lights?
5- Don’t leave your keys in the car while it is running
6- Use a steering‐wheel lock
7- Have a photo copy of your insurance, registration in the car and black out your home address. Have the real copy in the truck or locked away.
8- Get a car tracker GPS
9- Don’t leave spare keys hanging on the wall at home
10- *Engrave everything, take pictures and serial numbers
I want wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Hi, I’m Terry Whin-Yates from Mr. Locksmith. I have here for you the top 10 security tips for securing your car or truck during the holiday season.
Lock Your Car: The first thing you should always do is lock your vehicle. It is amazing how many times you can walk through a parking lot, and see how many cars and trucks are unlocked.
Parking: When you’re shopping, don’t park way in the back, park with the crowd, usually the shopping parking lots are full anyways at the mall. Park where everybody else is parking,
Christmas Shopping Bags in the car: Do not put your Christmas Shopping bags where they are visable inside your car where people can see it. I’m amazed, I’m walking through the parking lot, and there’s gifts, the bags. I personally have a friend who had his engagement ring stolen out of his truck, ’cause he went there with all those loads, put the bags in his truck, everybody could see it, and he got broken into, and walked away with an expensive engagement ring. That’s an extreme case, but walk through the mall, you see everybody’s got everything out there. I even saw from a Louis Vuitton purse, a brand new one, with the price tag still on it, sitting in the passenger’s seat, I just thought, oh, they’re just dyin’ to get that stolen. Don’t put your holiday gifts where everybody can see ’em. Don’t put your holiday gifts out where everybody can see it who walks by your car. Lock it in the trunk. If you got a hatchback or whatever, cover it up, so they can’t see what’s in the back.
Parking under Lights: When it comes to parking, they always say park under the light. I don’t know, there’s nothing to show that parking under a light or parking in the dark is any better. Sometimes when you park under a light, it makes it easier for the burglar to see what’s inside, so when you’re parked in the dark part, you may feel better parking under the light, but the crooks can’t see what you got inside your car. So when they say park under a light, there’s no proof either way that that works. If anything, we think it makes it easier for the crooks to see what’s in your car and steal your car. So when you park, under a light, without a light, eh, the jury’s still out on that one.
Steering wheel locks. I love these on a car because when you’ve got that lock on a steering wheel, the burglars, the car thieves, just walk on. I know it’s difficult to steal a new car, ’cause we have transponders and chips in the keys. So a lot of the newer vehicles you just can’t steal. However, they still try. Some of the more stupid crooks, even though you got a brand new car, they still think they can jam a screwdriver in that ignition and steal your car. You got a thousands of dollar bill because you’ve got some idiot crook trying to steal your car with a transponder chip. Put a steering wheel lock on it, they’re just gonna leave it alone. So it’s a pain to put on and off, but if you wanna really secure your car, put a steering wheel lock on the steering wheel. Either the cheap $10 ones or the $150 ones. They’re all effective as a visual deterrent for them stealing your car.
Alarm systems. I bought a brand new car, I thought it had an alarm system, we got broken into, nothing went off. So I finally, I lowered the windows, hit the alarm button, opened the door, nothing happened. I couldn’t believe it. Make sure your alarm system works before you get broken into. So just do a simple test, lock it with the windows down, reach through, open up the door, see if the alarm goes off. If your car doesn’t have an alarm, alarm systems are very, very inexpensive to add to your vehicle right now. So get an alarm system installed in your car. That little flashing light inside, that’s a good deterrent as well, they see that. I always have my installer put it so everybody can see that light flashing so they know I have an alarm system.
GPS: If you have a luxury car or classic or something you just like, these new GPS locators are great. So if they steal your car, if they use a tow truck or if they get a key and they steal your car, you can at least locate your car pretty quick. Extra keys, don’t leave extra keys in your car, or hanging on the wall at home, or hanging on the wall at the office. When a burglar breaks into your house, he sees the keys, he steals your keys, he’s got your car. Cars are simple to get into. No matter what you do, the car’s gonna be easy to open. However, if you got a key in there, they open it up, they look under the mat, they look under the visor, and there’s the spare key, they drive your car away. Don’t have spare keys in your car. I live in a city that has very, very high theft from vehicles. The crackheads, the meth heads, breaking into my car or truck, they’re usually getting the change out of the ashtray.
Insurance and Ownership Papers: One of the big problems you have as well is in your glove box, is your registration and your insurance papers. They are stealing those important papers, one, sometimes they find extra keys in your car, then they go hit your house, that happens a lot. They break into the car, there’s a set of keys, they have your registration with your home information on there, or more identification for identification theft, they take that information, they use it against you. I have a photocopy of my registration, and a photocopy of my insurance, and it’s been blacked, my personal information except for my name, my address, phone number, and other information is blacked out on that photocopy. So if they get in, get my information out of the glove box, they only got a photocopy and they don’t know where I live. Even when you get pulled over, you give the police officer your photocopies and your real driver’s license, I’ve never been asked to show the real copies, because they have the important information there. However, you should have the information in the trunk of your car or secured somewhere else that you can give them right away.
Engrave: People are forgetting some basics we used to do years ago, and it’s a good thing to do again. Engrave your VIN information on your car wherever possible. On your stereo system, on your wheels, everywhere, engrave your VIN. I know there’s secret VIN’s on a lot of the vehicles, there’s the VIN’s you can see everywhere, and there’s some secret VIN’s, however, your wheels very rarely have the VIN on it. Put your VIN, engrave it on there. It’s simple, easy to do, if you have a classic car, or an expensive car, or you put on expensive wheels, have that information on, engrave it right on there. Get a Dremel, get a Buzz Bum, get whatever, you can etch it, you can do all sorts of things. The engravers work the best, like the little vibrating engravers because even when they file it off, you can still see the numbers. Or get it stamped. You got expensive wheels, put in your vin on the wheels. When they’re stolen, and if they get, if you’re lucky enough to get recovered, you can positively identify it by the VIN. Plus when the police find bits and pieces of your car, if it’s got the VIN on it, you can at least maybe recover it or it makes them able to get a charge against the car thieves.
I hope you enjoyed the top 10 security tips for securing your car during the holiday season.
I want wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Note: If you get locked out of your car or lose your keys during the Holidays call Mr. Locksmith Automotive.
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