October 12, 2006
UW Police offer advice on avoiding car prowls
Since school has started there have been 10 car prowls reported on campus.
A car prowl occurs when a thief enters your vehicle and steals your personal property. Usually thieves will not waste their time entering a vehicle when there is no personal property in plain view. The majority of the car prowl reports on campus are from victims who left their iPod, backpacks, purses, wallets, and stereo faceplates sitting out in plain view.
Once a car prowler enters your vehicle he or she will then look in the center console, glove compartment or under the seats for other items to steal. We recommend that you lock all valuable property in your trunk and that you remove coins from your ashtray. It is very rare that we take a car prowl report from a victim who had property stolen from the trunk. Remember that thieves can car prowl your vehicle in less than two minutes.
Last week there was a laptop stored in a backpack that was stolen from a vehicle on campus. The backpack that was left inside of the vehicle was obviously seen by the car prowler before he or she entered the vehicle. The backpack also contained a check book, credit card and the victim’s identification that was used within hours to purchase over $3,000 worth of merchandise.
In most cases we do not recover stolen property from car prowls, because most victims don’t provide us with the serial number for their property and or the crime goes unreported. Serial numbers, if provided, can be entered into a National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database which allows police departments nationwide to identify your stolen property, if recovered.
You can help reduce car prowls now by removing valuable property from plain view, inside of your vehicle. You can increase your chances of recovery if you become a victim of a theft by registering your personal electronics and or bicycle with the UW Police Department at www.washington.edu/admin/police/prevention. This is a free service.
Listed below are safety tips that may help keep you from becoming a victim of a car prowl.
- Lock your vehicle every time you leave it.
- Don’t leave your windows rolled down, not even a crack.
- Don’t leave vital information in your car.
- Park your vehicle in well lit areas.
- Mark your valuables with a personal number.
- Don’t leave valuables in plain view for a thief.
- Affix your parking permit to your windshield; permits are often stolen.
- Invest in a car alarm.
