Vehicle B and E.

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Possession of a stolen firearm alone carries a five-year maximum penalty, depending on your state. What would you propose instead?
I highly doubt any first time offenders get 5 years. In some countries they chop off your hand.
 
I've never had a gun stolen from my car, but I have had it broken into once when we lived in Chicago and the health club we go to posts signs from time to time warning of frequent break ins in their parking lot. Why they don't do anything about it is puzzling. I leave my gun at home when I go there as the risk of it being stolen is significantly higher than the chance that I'll need it. FWIW it is a safe area with a low violent crime rate or we wouldn't live here or frequent that health club.
 
It's weird what people will steal.
I had a 1964 Rambler Wagon, mainly because my Dad had given up on it. The clutch was burned out, the radiator had a poorly patched bullet hole and the muffler was only theoretically connected.
It was parked on the street in South Central Los Angeles.
Someone stole it
It was found in front of the Employment Office.
I had a dickens of a time getting it home.

Incidentally, this was the vehicle that was towing my travel trailer when I had four rifles stolen from it... while broken down in three foot of snow in the Oregon mountains. We had evacuated after most of a month stuck in the snow. All six of us had pneumonia. The guns, tools and a bunch of other stuff disappeared before we got back.
 
Possession of a stolen firearm alone carries a five-year maximum penalty, depending on your state. What would you propose instead?

Yes I propose that prosecutors stop plea bargaining away the gun charges to get a confession to the B&E charge. I was told by both a prosecutor and a probation officer that the gun charges are often the first thing on the table for a plea bargain. I got to know a bunch of them when I wired one of our local courts 20 years ago.
 
Once, back in 2008, while living out in the middle of nowhere near Dewey, Arizona. I had my first M&P40c stolen from my car parked in the driveway, and a custom Vang Comp 870 shotgun stolen from the house. Middle of the day. My black lab/pitbull mix was home and had free reign of the house.

I know who did it. Guy named "Tiny" that lived in the caretaker cabin down the road. Ex-meth dealer and biker who claimed he was now a Christian and reformed. He had be-friended me and my wife and hung out quite often. Apparently not. He was the only person I knew who could walk into my house without getting bitten that had a record and knew where I had my guns.

The only other time I had a vehicle break-in was 15 miles North of that place, in Prescott Valley, AZ. My daughter left her nice new purse sitting on the back seat of my wife's SUV in the driveway and the window was smashed and the purse stolen.

Lot's of crime in that area, it seemed.

I now live in a town of 1200 that has a barely detectable crime rate. US average is 380. My town is 25. I forgot and left my keys in my new 4runner out on the street yesterday (no gun, though) and it was still there when I woke up.
 
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I think the frequency in break ins is dependent on location. I worked in the Bronx and my car was broken into several times. I lost a radio, twice, change, and even prescription glasses, go figure.

I never lost a gun because my agency's regulations prohibited leaving a weapon in a parked car. There was no excuse, and it was cause to be brought up on charges, with an extremely good chance of loss of employment.

Since retired, I believe it's good policy and never leave a weapon in a vehicle.

I have personally seen an officer sued civilly for damages caused when his nephew stole his gun and shot someone. In our litigious society it's not hard to imagine being sued or even prosecuted for failing to properly safeguard your weapon.

It’s Mardi Gras here on the gulf coast. This time of year so many guns are stolen out of cars it’s scary. All our local LEO are constantly cautioning all to lock their vehicles. Our local officials are always contemplating passing local ordinances to make it an offense to leave a vehicle unattended in which a firearm is stolen. I don’t agree with that exactly, but it always comes up this time of year.
 
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I had one stolen in 1989. It was a Taurus Model 66. Taken from locked pickup truck after a hole was punched through the tinted window to reach the lock.

The same burglars struck again six months later, and then yet again one year after that. I could tell because the same method was used, picking only the windows that were no longer tinted (I didn't re-tint each window that I replaced.) Using a centerpunch on an untinted window makes too much noise. Nothing was taken in each of the subsequent burglaries.

The gun was reported stolen to the local LE agency (I was a LEO, but living outside my agency's jurisdiction.) It was recovered two years or so later in a high-crime area after a response to a drive-by shooting there. Responding officers pursued a suspect vehicle, which crashed, resulting in four separate foot pursuits. All four suspects threw down guns as they ran; mine was one of them, though not the one used in that shooting, or any other known case. It was returned to me, somewhat scuffed up, but in otherwise working order.
 
My personal opinion (not backed up by any studies that I didn't look for in preparation for this post) is that most vehicular B&Es are likely to be quick snatch-and-grab crimes of opportunity.

Between my wife and I, each of us well into our 50s, theft from our vehicles has happened twice in our lifetimes.

For me, it was a radar detector. The object was in plain view on the dash, and nothing else of any value was disturbed though there were other items of value had the thief simply taken a few seconds to look.

For my wife, it was a GPS. Again, nothing else of any value was disturbed INCLUDING the envelop right under the GPS which had about $100 in it.

Obviously, if anybody wants anything in particular from a vehicle there is very little to prevent it.

Also obviously, a great deal more can be stolen from any given vehicle by anybody who would actually spend more time searching, or more time planning.

I have long subscribed to the philosophy of "out of sight, out of mind". If there is nothing of immediate value to be seen, then your vehicle is a less tempting target for theft.

If I leave a gun in a vehicle for some reason, it's most definitely out of casual sight. It's more than likely locked/secured in something, too.

And the vehicle is probably not parked in areas which would make it stand out above any other as a target of opportunity.
 
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The ONLY time that I leave a gun in my vehicle is when I have to enter a location that both prohibits my concealed carry AND has a metal detector or other process to ensure that no one enters while armed. And that would mean that my vehicle is parked with the gun for only a short time. Twice in my life I have had a car broken into, but neither time was there a gun inside. I have no bumper stickers, window decals or anything else on any of my vehicles that would give a thief the idea that there might be a gun in the car. No "Protected by Smith & Wesson", or NRA decals, or for that matter, a MAGA bumper sticker or the like. No Glock baseball cap visible on the rear deck of the car, or anywhere else. I carry every day, but the gun is virtually always on my person and not likely to ever be seen, let alone stolen.
 
The ONLY time that I leave a gun in my vehicle is when I have to enter a location that both prohibits my concealed carry AND has a metal detector or other process to ensure that no one enters while armed. And that would mean that my vehicle is parked with the gun for only a short time. Twice in my life I have had a car broken into, but neither time was there a gun inside. I have no bumper stickers, window decals or anything else on any of my vehicles that would give a thief the idea that there might be a gun in the car. No "Protected by Smith & Wesson", or NRA decals, or for that matter, a MAGA bumper sticker or the like. No Glock baseball cap visible on the rear deck of the car, or anywhere else. I carry every day, but the gun is virtually always on my person and not likely to ever be seen, let alone stolen.
As a life member of the NRA I would change the decals on my cars yearly, obtaining new ones at gun shows. A buddy finely convinced me that practice could attract attention.

Twice in the past two years I’ve managed to lock my self out of my van. An AAA member, no big deal. I was simply amazed on both occasions at how the responder retrieved my keys. A simple flat pad inserted between the door window post and body, pumped up which sprang the door frame enough to allow the door lock to be grasped by a hook and pulled open. I’m sure it’s a popular item with profession thieves.
 
I have never had a vehicle break-in but my oldest grandson did a few years ago. He spent the the night in a Dallas, TX motel and forgot to take his pistol inside. The next morning it was gone. He reported the theft to the police and assumed that he would never see his gun again. Grandpa fixed him up with another and life went on. About a year later he received a phone call from the San Antonio, TX district attorneys office asking if he had experienced the theft of a certain make of handgun with serial # so and so. He had the information and gave them the name of a dealer to return it to. He was surprised to find it unharmed when he received it. It was missing the magazine which was the only glitch to an unexpected conclusion to this little story. I didn't ask for the gun back that I gave him of course so he made out pretty good on the whole thing. I suspect endings like this are few and far between.
 
Two car thefts in my family.
The first was when I was a boy on family vacation. We had stopped for the night at a mom and pop motel. We hadn't even finished getting our luggage unloaded, and the car disappeared from in front of our room. The cop that was filling out the report in the motel parking perked up when the radio in his squad reported an abandoned vehicle in an intersection a few miles away. It was our car, doors wide open, still running, undamaged, 4E Ithaca trapgun still in the trunk! We were lucky.

The other incident was my wife and I in Nashville for a wedding when someone stole her garment bag with her best dress(shes still mad about that) from the rear hatch of our Explorer at a gas station in broad daylight. We dont know how they got in. We think it was locked.
My sp101 was in the console because Illinois had yet to issue ccp. Al, they got was a garment bag of ladies dresses and clothes.
 
Twice in the past two years I’ve managed to lock my self out of my van. An AAA member, no big deal. I was simply amazed on both occasions at how the responder retrieved my keys. A simple flat pad inserted between the door window post and body, pumped up which sprang the door frame enough to allow the door lock to be grasped by a hook and pulled open. I’m sure it’s a popular item with profession thieves.[/QUOT

Ive used them and they are better than a slim jim or wedge. But, a brick is easier and when a cop hassles you look pretty guilty with dent pullers/slim jims/wedges etc. Theres plenty of bricks around and you dont even have to keep one with you!
 
Some years back I had my issued shotgun ripped out of a marked police car while it was parked in front of the Dade county courthouse in broad daylight... The weapon was in one of those vertical mounted electro-locks and quite visible to anyone walking by. While I was in court a sudden summer downpour (an every afternoon event in Miami during the rainy season) lasted less than ten minutes and there were two purse snatches and more than one vehicle burglary during the downpour... right in that parking lot in front of the building... As you can guess there were lots and lots of folks in the area involved in various cases - both as victims and bad actors... That area was just plain busy whenever I went "downtown" to court.

Of course my agency did their best to find me responsible for the theft and no... the shotgun was never recovered. This occurred in the late seventies when I was still a patrolman and going to court while on duty was something that was required at least two or three times each month (I was a very active young cop so I spent all too much time in court back then...). From that day forward I never trusted those shotgun locks and did my best to keep my shotgun in the trunk whenever I had to park my vehicle where it was out of my sight... Miami was quite the town back then...

By the way the side glass in any vehicle is not reinforced at all and is designed to crumble if there's a fracture... Our young bad guys either used an old sparkplug thrown against the glass to crack it - or a spring loaded center punch (available at any hardware store) to achieve the same crack... I've been on surveillance in parking lots looking to catch folks breaking into cars (movie theatre parking lots in my era were favorites...) and you can be looking at someone breaking into side glass and never hear a sound since the only sound the glass makes sounds like gravel hitting the pavement... Not exactly what you'd expect... One year one of my officers shot and killed a vehicle burglar in the act of stealing a car - and funny thing... our vehicle burglaries and auto thefts went to almost zero for a full year afterwards...
 
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Saw this story on the local news a week or so ago. There's a video clip talking about how theives are getting in Ford trucks at the driver's door handle/lock cylinder. Apparently you just pull the door handle out exposing the lock cylinder. Then just grab the cylinder with pliers and force it to turn and you're in!

https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/watch-mans-truck-broken-into-in-nine-seconds-gun-stolen

Day-um. All the more reason to not keep your gun in your truck when you’re not in it!
 
I uses to leave a gun in my car. Pretty common practice in VT I suspect. Although you dont see as many rear window gun racks with a couple rifles in em as I used to when I was young. I live in a pretty safe area but there is crime in the area from time to time. Anyway I used to live in the middle of nowhere and my driveway was 1/4 mile long and I was deep in the woods so I never thought twice about it but now that I live close to town I dont leave guns in the car. Especially since my neighbor had his car stolen out of his driveway, when he was home. I always kind of agreed with people against the practice. Gun gets taken out of your car while you sleep and you wake up to an intruder with your own gun pointed at you, I wouldnt be into that.
 
I keep a gun in the trunk of my car but it’s in one of these cabled metal lock boxes. You can get a cheap one for $15 at Harbor Freight with a coupon. I also store my off-site computer backup hard drive in one.

1410992866-75200-Large-Lock-Box-with-key-lock.jpg

I figure that’s a reasonable precaution against liability. If someone has the tools to pop the trunk and cut the cable they are going to get a gun somewhere regardless.
 
Tradesman must have a heck of a time maintaining a tool inventory. My son is a plumber but uses a pickup with a hard type bed cover. He’s never lost any tools to my knowledge.
 
The only time I've had a car that was broken into was when I was living in downtown Denver. I had a nothing-special car (1986 VW Golf) with an after market radio/stereo and somebody broke the window and took the stereo out of the dash. The car was parked right in front of the apartment building, on a relatively busy street so whoever did the crime must have done it pretty quickly. I ended up putting another after market radio in the car (nothing fancy) and low and behold, it happened again. So I put a removable face stereo in the car and that took care of the problem. This was circa 1997-98 and again, right in the downtown area of Denver. At that time, I was not a gun enthusiast so I had no guns nor did I leave valuables in the car.

As others have said, I never leave guns in my cars overnight. I also agree with posters who say that leaving your car unlocked, in any neighborhood, is just asking for trouble. I've lived in very nice neighborhoods/towns over the years and there are always criminal activity where there are parked cars overnight. Any car that is left unlocked, overnight, is an opportunity for theft. All a criminal has to do is drive down that street at 3am and stop to see if a parked car is unlocked. I suspect that some of these burglaries (where I lived) where perpetrated by young men/boys (not from poor families) that just wanted to see what they could get away with. I strongly suspected that the local high school is where the perps where residing.
 
I keep a gun in the trunk of my car but it’s in one of these cabled metal lock boxes. You can get a cheap one for $15 at Harbor Freight with a coupon. I also store my off-site computer backup hard drive in one.

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I figure that’s a reasonable precaution against liability. If someone has the tools to pop the trunk and cut the cable they are going to get a gun somewhere regardless.

I've thought about getting one of these and installing it in my car as a red herring. Put something in it that "looks" like it might be something I'd consider at least personally valuable.

Leave it in plain view to anybody who opens my trunk and let them waste their valuable B&E time stealing it.

Meanwhile, elsewhere out-of-sight, out-of-mind in my car...
 
Had the passenger door key “popped” on my vehicle once.

Had my range bag stolen while I was grocery shopping. Had my pistol on my belt while shopping thank goodness.

Called Police as I wanted a report. He volunteered that nothing would come from this, despite about $100 of ammo in the bag.

I asked if anything would come of it if the firearm had been left in vehicle and he said probably not.
 
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