A tale of two vehicle break-ins (and flashlights lost)

First vehicle break in: On the morning of April 2nd (two Thursday ago), as I was walking to my car to head out to work that morning, I noticed there was a large amount of broken glass on the parking lot beside the passenger door of my car. Drawing closer I came to the sickening realization that the broken glass was from the front passenger window of my car. Sometime during the course of the night some unknown party (or parties) decided to smash the window and steal some items from my parked car. Among the items stolen were a GPS dashboard mount (the actual GPS unit comes inside my home with me every night), a Sansa Fuze MP3 player which I had left on the passenger seat, and the flashlight I keep in the center console of my vehicle. The thief (thieves?) made off with my Surefire K2 KROMA MilSpec.

Second vehicle break in: On the evening of April 2nd (yes, the same evening after my own car had been broken into) I drove to choir practice at church in a rental car after my own car had been dropped off at the body shop for repairs. As I prepared to walk from the parking lot to choir practice in one of the rooms in the parish center, I decided to leave my Maxpedition Proteus pack in the rental car because I was already laden with needing to bring a guitar, amplifier, cables, music stand and music books. So having safely (or so I thought) tucked the pack out of sight under the seat I left the rental car at around 7:30 pm for choir practice. Upon the conclusion of the choir practice at around 9 pm I returned to the parking lot to be greeted with yet another pile of broken glass beside the passenger door of the rental car. A thief (or thieves) had somehow spied my pack and broke the window to get it. This time the items stolen were more costly both monetarily and personally. As far as cost of items stolen, they included a digital camera, cellular phone and several flashlights. The flashlights stolen were my Surefire E2DL + F04 beam shaper, a Fenix E01 and my Zebralight H50 headlamp. And the item that saddened me the most about it being lost was my digital camera, because I had several weeks worth of photos of my baby girl which I had not yet downloaded to my computer. All the other items stolen can be easily replaced but those photos of my daughter are irreplaceable...

If I were to parody the MasterCard commercials, it would be like this:

Cost of a Surefire K2 KROMA: $360
Cost of a Surefire E2DL + F04: $163
Cost of a Fenix E01: $15
Cost of a Zebralight H50: $69
Cost of my baby girl's pictures: priceless

So yeah, I'm bummed about the stolen flashlights, and I'm really bummed (and pissed) about my daughter's pics... :mecry:

Thieves **** me off! Sorry they got you.:thumbsdow

Hmm maybe you could contact your cellular service to track the phone. Inform the cops and you might get some stuff back. Put some thieves in lockup too. That's really truly crappy luck. Hope someone pays.

Wow, twice in one day, that sucks. Hope you can get some of your stuff back! My sympathies.

I hate thieves. Sorry for all your losses, same thing happened here at the house. Lost jewelery, a portable DVD player, and a bunch of lights.

It's awful the photographs are gone, some things can never be replaced.

First of all, sorry for your losses. That's a real shame.

I am very surprised to hear it happening, especially in Silicon Valley. I know that it's a simple crime and it's something people always warn against but I have not heard of a smash and grab in a very long time. It's like getting mugged. Maybe I've been lucky.

Seems like an amazing coincidence to me, is it possible you're being targeted?

A parked car is like a 'supermarket' for canvasing thieves, if it's on the seat, parcel shelf, centre console OR partly under a seat they WILL locate it, thus unless you're being specifically targeted/watched it would've been more secure to place it in the boot (or trunk as you call it there) because out of sight is out of mind :thumbsup:

Sorry for you loss

Rothrandir said:

Seems like an amazing coincidence to me, is it possible you're being targeted?

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First my condolences.

Second, my brother's truck was stolen once, and they tracked the thieves down using his cell phone in the glove box. Hopefully the local police can do the same for you.

Third, I share the quoted opinion. My brothers have a ice house that was repeatedly broken into. It wound up being someone they would frequently fish with. This sounds very similar.

Some people just have the luck...or lack thereof
My car is almost always unlocked, even on campus. A truck sitting in wally's parking lot beside mine was broken into and the alarm was still running when I returned from the cashier line. My car was untouched:candle:

This was a new car too, 2009 Santa Fe
I parked my old car with the keys in the ignition in the bad part of the town for a full day with the windows down and a full tank of gas. Other than getting a ticket for exceeding the 1 hour parting time no one took anything...am I doing something wrong here?

It always bothers me why certain people [in my case, Friends or neighbors] have had incidents such as this. deranged_coder, I am sorry for your loss and consider it lucky that your car is still retrievable. I have a classmate who's Ford Econoline van was stolen out of his garage and found at a remote area where people frequently go mudding in and burnt out of recognition except for the license plate. Just last week a neighbor whom we know very well of had their car window broken on his own driveway apparently "for fun" because nothing was taken.

sygyzy said:

I am very surprised to hear it happening, especially in Silicon Valley.

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the generous welfare programs takes its toll and low-income housing (public housing and section-8)areas are all over Silicon Valley area.

Anything in sight is just one rock away, for the potheads, coke heads and methheads that need a fix, and they feel entitled to other people's stuff.

Coder, did I meet you at the get together? You brought your daughter right? Sorry to hear that, but that's today's Sil Valley for ya. Anything that you don't want to lose is best kept somewhere other than in the vehicle. The nicest areas in Santa Clara or San Mateo counties are within a few minutes driving from the shady areas.