Car Broken Into - Courtyard

A reminder to everyone not to leave valuables in cars and lock your car doors. This morning I discovered my car's passenger door and trunk open. My glove compartment was also open and the contents disheveled. I was surprised a car parked in the courtyard would be a subject of theft. I was lucky nothing of value was in the car. Nonetheless I have filed a police report. I also noticed when leaving for work a couple of cars with trunks and car doors open.

Thanks for posting this. I saw my neighbor's passenger car door open Friday morning and closed it thinking he may have forgotten. I will let him know. We are in 475 Milan.

I am the neighbor in Building 475 that sswillow is referring too. Very rarely do I mistakenly forget to lock my car but yesterday morning (Friday) I found my driver's door locked but ajar. I'm pretty sure my car was locked when I parked it in the courtyard late Thursday afternoon. It is a convertible and it takes seconds with the right tool to get pass the window to the lock. They got my checkbook, GPS unit and blue tooth headset. My checkbook was returned yesterday afternoon by someone who found at Trimble and Montague.

Unknowing when sswillow closed my passenger door the culprit had already broken into my car. Since the driver door was locked but ajar they must have gotten in and out on the passenger side where they could get to the stand alone GPS unit easily. The passenger does not have key access and takes an extra click to open with the remote.

Someone got into my car back in December of 2009 and stole personal property. Again, I am pretty sure it was locked. So the message to all is to be on guard and make sure your vehicle is locked. My horn beeps when I lock the car and that is how I double check and let the horn beep twice. Unless you have damage to your car you will find that your auto insurance does not provide much protection against stolen personal property. Home insurance does cover some things. So the 2nd message is to also check what coverage you have.

I just filed a police report. Anyone who found their car with door or trunk open especially if you are missing property will help our community by filing a police report. It takes about 10 minutes on line. It appears several cars were burglarized during the same time period.

I live in 445. My car is a convertible and it's easy to pop the lock on the passenger side. When leaving for work, I noticed the cars parked on Navaro in front of 460 had their trunks open.

Wow that sucks! I'll let Peachtree know and we'll add a warning in the next newsletter.

It is a bit surprising that someone would be so brave and break into a car in a courtyard.

With more residential units coming into this area we might see a increase in these types of crimes. When I first joined the board we discussed whether the need to hire a security firm to patrol at night was warranted. At the time it was about $50-60k for a night patrol only. That's about $18 per unit a month on average. I'm not sure that would totally prevent this but could help. It could also stop people from using our pool at night who may not belong. A neighborhood watch group is another idea but I doubt we would get enough participation.

Thoughts?

I agree pretty bold to break into cars parked in the courtyard. Personally I believe a patrol would help ensure the safety of our community and is worth the extra cost. The Neighbor watch is a great idea and i am happy to participate but the HOA tried to implement several years ago and the participation necessary didn't materialize

I would like to pursue the neighborhood watch but not familiar with the details of how they work and their effectiveness. A patrol guard is expensive and has limitations and I would not even consider it unless they had authority to apprehend (by force if necessary) anyone committing a crime. I don't think one guard on foot would be very effective in catching anyone but could be somewhat of a deterrent. If the HOA has to increase fees we should be looking at the cost benefit of all viable alternatives.

I am looking into getting an alarm system for my vehicle. I am finding out that a lot have costly features that I personally do not want or need. I just want an alarm system that will work if pressure is applied to a window and if a door is opened and basic functions to sound the alarm if my car is being burglarized. Maybe we could get a group discount.

Other forum members may have ideas on this but since this a public forum I suggest that the problem of car burglary be discussed at the next Board Meeting.

This is terrible. One of the reasons I moved here because of how calm and safe the area is.

Car alarms help, but are mostly ineffective for petty theft or vandalism protection. A neighborhood watch is good, but can be weak too because thieves come in the still of the night...3-to-4am. The best bet is a security patrol. We can get the cost way down by grouping together with Fountains, Mill Brook, Galleria, and Parkside.

Lemonhead wrote:This is terrible. One of the reasons I moved here because of how calm and safe the area is.

Car alarms help, but are mostly ineffective for petty theft or vandalism protection. A neighborhood watch is good, but can be weak too because thieves come in the still of the night...3-to-4am. The best bet is a security patrol. We can get the cost way down by grouping together with Fountains, Mill Brook, Galleria, and Parkside.

Partnering with the other communities is a waste of time. We tried to partner with them on other issues and never got anywhere. We WERE locked into the shuttle with the others and because of the agreement were forced to pay even though we didn't want to be a part of it any longer. So it required a unanimous vote to make a change. Personally, I think having a patrol across all the communities will reduce the time the patrol spends in the Villagio, which defeats the purpose. Cameras might be another option...heck I'll install one from my balcony overlooking the spots out front of my house.

I'd love to catch the mofo and tazer their ass but identifying them to the Police might be better.

I think it would be money well spent to have a reputable security expert consult with the Board to determine what is the best alternative that is effective and has the highest cost-benefit. If cost was not an issue I would love to have security guards with Tasers using quiet electric vehicles vigilantly patrolling our complex.

Admin wrote:

Partnering with the other communities is a waste of time. We tried to partner with them on other issues and never got anywhere. We WERE locked into the shuttle with the others and because of the agreement were forced to pay even though we didn't want to be a part of it any longer. So it required a unanimous vote to make a change. Personally, I think having a patrol across all the communities will reduce the time the patrol spends in the Villagio, which defeats the purpose. Cameras might be another option...heck I'll install one from my balcony overlooking the spots out front of my house.

I'd love to catch the mofo and tazer their ass but identifying them to the Police might be better.

Well that sucks about the shuttle deal, but I think a shared security patrol could be more straight forward. Realistically, who would want to opt out? Cameras would help...and I especially like the part about the tazer.

It's interesting that everytime when the complex I live has construction going on near by, I heard more people mention about car break-in and all the coincidence can't stop giving me the conclusion. I notice the construction at the corner of Seely and River Oaks starts before 7am usually, so assume strangers may come to this area early in the morning. Having neighborhood watch probably won't help much in this case.

Security patrol will be better in my opinion and maybe we can terminate the service after all the construction near by finished, so the cost won't need to be built into the budget every year. And if we are not sure how it goes, maybe we can even go for short term contract, say three month, to see if it helps. But I think the patrol service should be for Villagio only for being more effective.

Having cameras will be a solution for long term but where they should be installed, who and how often should monitor and what action should be done if certain action gets spotted from cameras seem still questionable to me. But, but, but, they can really help us on mailbox break-in, car break-in or even recycle issue at garbage dumpster.

Just some thoughts here to share,

Carolyn at 470

Here's the URL for info on Neighborhood Watch. If we have enough interested I will call to set up a meeting.

http://www.sjpd.org/bfo/community/Crimeprev/neighborhoodwatch.html