Can you please share with neighbors that we need to be vigilant about car break-ins, especially anyone who has a detachable face or after-market car stereo?
Between Sunday evening and 7:00 AM today, thieves broke the rear passenger, small ``triangle`` window of my very old Honda CRV (1997), unlocked the doors and rummaged through my glove compartment. It doesn`t appear they took anything when they didn`t find the car radio in the glove box. They left a variety of clothes, including a new roller board suitcase with the tags on it that was in the car. (Yes, I know, I shouldn`t leave valuables in the car, but clearly they weren`t interested in anything but the radio.) This is the second time this has happened to me in the unit block of W street where my car was parked almost directly in front of my house. In July or August, someone broke in and took the entire radio component as I forgot to detach the radio face on that occasion. I will call the police and file a report when I get home from work this evening.
I`m not really sure what I can do at this point other than leave a sign that says ``RADIO NOT IN CAR`` to keep thieves from trying again.
Now read this feedback from ANC 5C04 Commissioner John Salatti:
I am very sorry to hear about the break in. That is a shame and something we continue to work against. Of course, unless we have cameras or webcams on the streets, getting these thieves is tough. But not impossible. We`ve gotten them before.
I was just speaking this morning to 5D Commander Andy Solberg about how good things are in Bloomingdale this days concerning crime. Home burglaries are down 60% from earlier in the year! But I did note that the burning irritant of the moment is exactly what happened to you, car break-ins. So we have to stay vigilant and report the incidents. As police see the pattern emerge, they can track it and move against the perpetrators. They`ve succeeded before.
And remind me to find one of those ``No Radio`` signs soon.
John
John T. Salatti
Commissioner, ANC 5C04
Vice President, Bloomingdale Civic Association
(202) 986 - 2592
``Together, Building a Better Bloomingdale``
5 comments:
I'd like to share that the same type of break-in occurred to my friend's car who was visiting from out of town on the corner of Florida Avenue and R Street NW between the evening of Nov 3 and 8:30AM on Nov 4, 2011. The small triangle window in the back seat of the car was broken into, and a winter coat was stolen from the back seat. Originally there was a set of headphones sitting out in the back seat (with no iPod attached, which is what we believe caused the person to break into the car initially), but since there were no electronics to take, they took the coat instead. My friend reported the incident to MPD.
I'm sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, the same thing happened to my neighbor on the morning of Saturday, November 12 (I'd guess around 8 or 9 am). His window was smashed in an attempt to steal the CD player. The break-in occurred on Adams Street NW between 1st and 2nd Streets.
This is a chronic problem in this area of NW as I'm sure it is all around DC. We've had one of our vehicles broken in to twice - both times for a Garmin that was in the glove box. One time we did foolishly leave the charger in clear view. But it looks like the thieves use a rock (at least thats what we found) to break one of the back windows then rummage around. Needless to say the police weren't very helpful as this keeps happening and they don't seem to be able to do anything about it. Very frustrating and a bit scary that it happens with such frequency.
Toss my name on the list. My car is 16 years old and worth about $500, but three or four times over the last few years my car has been broken into on the 100 block of T St NW. Only once did they try to steal it as the steering column was all torn up. That was the one time I forgot to put my club on. Otherwise, it is usually just a rock through the window and nothing gets stolen because nothing is in there to steal. It's just a waste of time and $200 to get my damn window replaced.
This actually led to over-vigilance on my part this past weekend. With my car parked on RI Ave on Sunday late morning I saw from my house that two guys were looking into my car's back window. So I hit the alarm button from my front steps and the car beeped and the guys jumped back and started looking around. I yelled over, "Can I help you guys with something?" They started yelling back that they weren't doing anything, dropped a couple of F-bombs and told me their address two blocks away and said the guy was using the window as a mirror to wipe his face clean. He did have a tissue in his hand, the guys were easily in their 40s if not older, and it was about 11am on a Sunday. So, like I said, over-vigilance on my part. I told them my car has been broken into a lot so hopefully they'll understand my sensitivity when I see people looking into my car.
Yet, creating that paranoia amongst law abiding citizens is what these jerks are doing as they commit their stupid petty little crimes. That is what angers me more than anything else.
My car was broken into like this for the small change in the ashtray about 10 years ago. Police said drug users do this. These petty crimes add up to a lot of cost... when you figure it takes between $2-500 to fix the car window (not to mention the time/aggro spent on it!), multiply that by 100s of such break-ins over the year. Then add up the cost of the petty items stolen, and in total, per year, it's a huge amount of theft. Over time our neighborhood has been robbed of hundreds of thousands of dollars, fueling drug abuse, increases in insurance premiums, stress etc. I don't really want cameras on every street corner so maybe a little over-reaction is bearable by everyone.
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