gps smash 'n' grab

[namiboy]

you probably already know this, but it really hit home for me the other day. we were in a meeting at my office and during a break we found 2 of my coworkers vehicles had the window smashed and gps stolen. 1 guy had a nice set of golf clubs in the car untouched and 1 guy had his radar detector and toll pass on the dash, all they took were the gps'. i have a little semi-secret stash box under my regular console box, so i was pretty safe. but, the cops said, believe it or not, that even if you hide your gps in the car, what they do is look for the telltale marks left on the windshield from the suction mount and may break in to look for it. down here in sofla, gps' are getting stolen like crazy.

[sanramonhunter]

Yeah I have heard the same stories about the windshield marks. I have one of those plastic garmin mounts on my dash, so my car looks pretty tempting I'm sure. I'm looking to buy a used Auto GPS and I'm always afraid that it's a stolen unit. The last one I bought used, the guy had the install disks, so I was about 90% sure it wasn't stolen. Who keeps the install cd in the car. But with the preloaded ones there really isn't a way to tell if it's stolen or not. Kinda sucks.

[Lknot]

Are they able to crack the security code?

 

This is for when I leave my car. I always take my GPS with me though.

 

[+zafwon]

It was only a matter of time before this became a widespread issue with portable units. Same happened to my buddies girlfriend's car 20 ft from his bedroom window. With units selling for under $200 just about everybody is getting them. The thieves are basically shopping. Nearly zero work required. It's hard to have anything nice anymore.

[+Team_LPD]

There was a report here in the local paper about GPS systems being stolen. Nothing was mentioned about the marks on the windshield, instead.....it was the users, leaving them in plain sight.

 

The ones being stolen were the systems desgined for cars, not the ones we normally use for geocaching.