GPS and Home Security

If you're like many people, you might have a portable GPS in your vehicle. A new trend with thieves is to break in to your vehicle, steal your GPS and your Garage Door Opener.  Then if your GPS is like most, you have your Home address programed into the GPS, so the thief selects home, drives to your house, uses your garage door opener to gain access to your home, and then proceeds to steal from you.

What can you do to protect yourself?  Make sure that you do not have your GPS on your dash/windshield when you are not in your vehicle.  Lock it in your glove box, your trunk, or take it with you.  If you are out of town on vacation, be sure and hide your garage door opener by either locking it in your glove box/trunk.  A thief doesn’t want to spend a lot of time, so they will look for the vehicles that present the quickest and easiest opportunities.  Don’t invite them to your vehicle.  Keep your glove box locked so they can’t get an insurance card that has your home address & remove any papers from your vehicle that would have that kind of personal data.

If you happen to be a victim of this type of crime, here are the steps that I feel you should take.

1. Call the police to notify them and ask that they drive by your house.
2. If possible, have someone go to your home and unplug your garage door opener.
3. If you have comprehensive coverage, you can report the damage to your vehicle to your insurance company.  Your contents in your car would fall under your homeowner or renter policy.
4. When you get home, get a new garage door opener or change the code so your old opener does not work.

Do you have a portable GPS in your vehicle? If so, is it programed with your home address?