I was awoken this morning by police banging on my door.
I looked out the window to see who it was and determined it probably had something to do with the car that was now parked mostly on my lawn, with the front still hanging off the edge into the street.
Evidently someone had tried to steal my across-the-street neighbor’s car, had put it in neutral, where it had promptly rolled down the driveway, across the street, then up over the curb into my lawn. The perp was then unable to figure out how to get it started and in gear, so he just left it there.
Two lessons:
- If you have a garage (my neighbors had converted theirs into an extra room long ago), keep your cars in it, at least the newest and most valuable ones.
- If you don’t have a garage, keep your doors locked. You might also consider getting The Club steering wheel lock, which can be had for less than $20.
And keep in mind that I live in a pretty low-crime area of Williamson County.
Tags: Austin, Crime, Williamson County
There’s different schools of thought on this.
1. Make it difficult for them to get things
2. Make it as easy as possible for them to get things.
I’m generally in favor of #1 — make yourself a hard(er) target, a less appealing target, etc.
But when it comes to some things, I see where some people are going with #2. That is, if chances are good they might get into/at it anyways, strive to minimize the damage they could cause (but still make yourself unappealing).
So like with cars, some people say to leave the doors unlocked. Why? If they’re going to break into your car anyways, at least they can just open the door instead of smashing a window or cutting through your soft top or whatever might cause damage to gain entry into the vehicle. So just leave it unlocked. But meantime, make yourself a pointless target — keep nothing of value in the car, nothing to give them reason to care to bother (move on to the next car). That said, if they want your car, they’ll take it… or at least try to — and there’s only so much you can do to guard against it.
Sorry to hear this happened to your neighbor — and to your lawn.
In this day and age having a standard transmission will foil most car theft.
Important questions I would be interested in answers to:
* How’s the lawn? Deeply rutted? Covered in leaking fluids?
* How’s the car, if you noticed? Totalled? Or “that’ll buff right out”?
Neither car nor lawn were notably damaged. The car obviously had enough momentum to jump the curb, but little more.