In case you're wondering, "will a thief steal a dash cam?" Yes. Yes they will.
 

Ugh. Got into my Mustang, which I don't drive often, to go to grab a bite to eat last night. I thought, "Why is my passenger seat so reclined?" I thought maybe my GF was reclining it. So I put it back and went along my way.

Brought the car to work this AM. On the way home, the road is so rough that it usually makes my dash cam beep, thinking I've been in an accident. Well it didn't beep! So I thought, "that's odd." So I feel up behind the rearview - heart sank.

They stole the camera AND took the wiring from under the head liner to the side and into the center console. While there, they helped themselves to my Ray Ban Wayfarer Aviators. Gone. I know I shouldn't leave 'em in the car but...

Damn X500 Thinkware dash cam gone. But no sign of forced entry. Which means I either forgot to lock it (which is funny because I always listen for it to honk, but one day I was so tired from working on something I just might've walked back into the house) or my push button start thing was defeated by one of those signal repeaters.

The thief must've been in my car for a while, they took the camera out, unhooked it, took out the plug, reclined the seat but didn't leave much mess. My radar detector was in the locked glovebox.

They also stole a stick of deodorant in the center console, ignored my nice pen, and also left my Michael Jackson Thriller cassette tape (it's a long story but it has sentimental value lol)

Happened 'round city hall area.

Will be checking Craigslist religiously at first but I may need to just let this one go for my own sanity.

Sigh. Last break in was 2003.

I had my old focus ST broken into, same thing no signs of forced entry. They ripped out my dashcam, radar detector, tuner and all the contents of the glove box everything else and just piled it on my passenger seat. I guess they just got spooked and ran. Maybe so much stuff made them think it was a bait car

left my car in front of my parents and they forgot to lock after moving it

few weeks ago the guy left a cigarette butt, out $100+ in emerg cash and under dash trim ripped out

honestly more worried next time they'll go for the garage door opener, pioneer head unit and qvia dash cam

i dont have address visible on my registration papers any more, everyone should do the same

sorry to hear, will icbc cover your loss?

Had a fellow rummage through my car a couple weeks ago. Sunday morning at 3:20AM, Southwest Richmond neighbourhood. I forgot to lock the car in the evening :nono:

Neighbour's camera showed two individuals on either side of the street, one male and one female, pulling car handles to see which ones were unlocked. He emptied my glovebox and center console, popped the hood (trying to find the trunk release I assume) and trunk.

After all that, he took my Airbus cap from the trunk :(

Thankfully nothing was damaged. My neighbour had her Jeep's center console ripped out and hand cream squirted all over the glovebox and dash last year.

I’d vote yes on execution punishment of petty theft. At least those turds with rap sheets longer than Ron Jeremy’s dick

Sorry to hear.

At least they didn't break your window, steal the dashcam and tear the headliner, trying to get the wires out.

Thank you
I'm going to try and call my broker today. My answer is probably not. I'd think it'd be hard to prove what I had in there. Both items were a gift from my girlfriend so I have 0 receipts.

$100 emergency cash... kept in the car?

I guess I'm lucky. A week after I moved into my house, my work van got broken into and they didn't take anything, at least from what I could see. My interior lights are turned off so the thief couldn't see much and the street light was behind the van. The only thing of value was my Thinkware F770 and they didn't see it.
The thing to do is to keep lots of useless junk in the passenger side so they spend their time going through that and no time to actually look around:rukidding:

I can't pick out the right word to use to describe mr00jimbo's incident, but it just so happens that a somewhat similar thing happened to my parents' car (it's a new-ish base model Civic). They normally park in the garage, but with the weather being quite nice lately, they have occassionally just left the car parked in front of the house in the last few weeks. One day last week when my old man was about to get into the car, he noticed that the junk in the glove box has been scattered all over the passenger seat and footwell. No signs of forceable break in. Nothing was lost as far as he can tell.

There is a small chance that my dad forgot to lock the car. All of us are very curious how it happened.

Happened to my sister's car parked near Patterson skytrain. Thieves smashed the passenger side window and ripped the dash cam off. Left the wiring and the rear dash cam. I'm always on the lookout for someone selling a Blackvue DR550GW without the rear cam.

Happened to my dad's Odyssey van parked in back lane in Rupert/Sunrise area. We finally figured that he forgot to lock the door. The thief opened both front doors, grabbed the dash cam, rummaged through a bunch of stuff randomly (thankfully didn't take much else. The van is had a lot of my dad's work tools). In fact completely destroyed the ignition lock cylinder, so we figured they attempted to steal the whole van, along with trailer in tow. Luckily the 2002 Odyssey had Honda's 1st gen immobilizer so they were foiled by that. When they left, they were smart enough to gently close the doors that they latched ajar, as so not to attract anyone with the noise. Had to tow the van to Honda tho

My parents live in that area too and have had our beater civic stolen twice, my old integra broken into and contents in vehicle stolen few other times when I lived there.
Even had my dog stolen from my front yard once. Luckily she was recovered through mutual friends living down the street and saw the dog.

It's pretty much always people forgetting to lock their doors with pretty much everyone using remotes nowadays. I think it's rare for someone to actually go through the trouble of smashing your window or picking your lock unless there was something very valuable visible inside. Much easier to just walk the streets pulling handles on every car to see who was careless and forgot to remotely lock it.

I've been the idiot and victim of this at least 4-5 times over the years.

I've had both, my Cherokee got hit the one time I forgot to lock it, my YJ was opened pretty much weekly since vinyl top + half doors = don't even bother locking it. My Prelude and Celica GTS someone popped the lock. My Celica GTFour some dipshit failed to smash the window and instead mangled the drivers door handle and door to get to the internal rods, then failed to punch out the ignition or open the ashtray. They also failed to notice that the dash was half torn apart, there was no battery, no wiring harness, no fluids of any kind, etc.

My dads G35 had the passenger window smashed and his GPS stolen in Coquitlam, at least that thief had the decency to just smash an easily replaceable window and do it on the passenger side so he could still drive it to work okay.

What can you do if you find it on CL or FB Marketplace other than a beatdown crew?

Call the cops

sounds like the city needs more bait cars...even allow people citizens in the break-in area's to take 1 and sell it real good parked in their front house...

One of the most common ways turds get into garages is breaking into vehicles and using the garage door opener. If you have a visor one bring it in with you or better yet swap to a keychain one so it'll go wherever the keys go. Getting into your car is one thing but imagine if they got into your garage.

Bait cars are typically for auto theft not for theft from auto :pokerface:

That's the thing with leaving your insurance papers in the glove box. They break into your car. Take your remote. Then look at the insurance papers to know where your garage is.

In the morning, I come down to see my sub sitting next to the car. The one time I forget to pull the tonnea cover in the trunk is the night our garage gets broken into, and I get my rear-windshield smashed. I hope that fucker hurt themselves trying to extract it such a heavy object at an odd angle.

many modern vehicles have homelink, so don't park right outside of your garage overnight, censor the address on registration and lock down valuables in the garage

I've had my car broken into twice in the past year. I forgot to lock up each time. The second time, they stole the dash cam. The Aldergrove Community Awareness page always has posts of incidents, security footage of thefts and break-ins, etc. They even know the names and have pics of the most notorious theives. Nothing ever seems to happen. The police are well awarw of them. Any time I spend more than a moment walking to and from the house to the car, I see the moat likely suspecta go past, scoping out the neighbourhood.

So what are my options, as I want to get another dash cam?
- buy another cheap/used dash cam, expecting it to eventually be stolen?
- buy a decent dash cam and remove it every time I exit the vehicle?

Should I lock my doors or remove valuables and leave it unlocked in order to prevent damage and the icbc/police headache?

Sometimes I miss living in places where nobody had to lock their doors, including their vehicles.

I would say, just remember to keep the doors locked.. If the common thief is just going around tugging on all the door handles, then that's an easy solution to keep them away. Next is to obviously not leave any valuables in plain sight. Where is your dashcam mounted? Depending on the model, it may be easier to mount it so it's more discreet.

i have the opposite problem, i always doubt myself if i locked my car or not so i i end up like quadtriple locking it