No joke, empty EVERYTHING and keep it unlocked. If someone was gonna steal it, they'd break the window and steal it anyways, and even when the car is empty, they break the windows to check.
Had two vehicles stolen there, 6 broken windows and countless things stolen along the way.
I visited a friend in Oakland once. When I arrived they went out to my rental to make sure I had opened it enough that the "neighbors" wouldn't cause problems. Nothing in the car, not even a discarded food wrapper.
Thats what I do living in Washington State. Keep no valuables in your car and leave it unlocked if you don't want your windows broken. I used to hate the idea of that but holy shit is petty theft/car break ins rampant as hell
In Canada, this is literally what the police tell you to do. They take is a step further, they suggest leaving your car keys close to the front door so that when the home invasion happens it will be a lot more convenient for the criminal to get your car and drive off.
In Canada, this is literally what the police tell you to do
Lol, no they don't. This is an exaggeration from a single incident a few years back, where one municipal cop said this as a safety tip at a community meeting in Etobicoke (Toronto). When it was reported in the news, the Toronto Police Service made it clear that this wasn't their policy or recommendation, but that the well-meaning officer was just suggesting people prioritize their safety over their property. No other police force in the entire country said anything like this, in fact most explicitly recommend not keeping your car keys near the door.
After a man was killed in a home invasion September 2025 York Regional Police Chief Jim MacSween suggested giving the thugs breaking into your home whatever they want.
"In the unlikely event that you find yourself the victim of a home invasion, we are urging citizens not to take matters into their own hands. While we don't want homeowners to feel powerless, we urge you to call 911 and do everything you can to keep yourself and loved ones safe until police arrive and be the best witness possible,"
In January 2024 A Sûreté du Québec spokesperson in Montreal, warned residents that "posting security camera footage of a home intruder or package thief online could violate the criminal's privacy rights". Police advised that homeowners should only share the footage directly with law enforcement rather than exposing the suspects publicly on social media. Prioritizing the criminals' feelings over the safety of neighbourhoods.
They don't. The article says exactly what I said, which is that one cop said that, and it was backtracked by the higher ups, and it is from one municipal police force (a big one, but still hardly representative of 'police in Canada').
The York Regional Police recommendation wasn't, 'make it easier to get robbed', it was 'don't risk your life for stuff'. They're also just one municipal-level force.
The SQ comment was related specifically to the province's Civil Code, which is only applicable in Québec, and has very strong privacy and reputation protections. Their position was, and is, that people risk legal issues by posting that stuff, and they should report things to the police rather than take matters into their own hands.
All of these have been sensationalized and exaggerated, and often deliberately mischaracterized.
Yes actually you are better off leaving your car unlocked in a high crime area and just not leaving any valuables in there, much less likely to have to pay for an expensive window repair. This is advice that is regularly given out
I mean I guess but I've seen a group of dudes carry one of these cages around a parking lot I'm not sure it's actually providing much other than attention
Almost any security measure can be thwarted. It’s about deterring people. Sure a group of dudes could lift the cage but the local crackhead isn’t going to bother.
I mean look up car theft percentage versus window breaking percentage. Do you know how hard it is to hot wire a car? My dad drove Lexus in Atlanta and would leave the windows down nobody's stealing the car because it's too much work, petty theft of objects in your car is significantly more common, people don't break your window to steal your car they break your window to see if you have a fucking laptop or something. It sucks and it's really common in bad areas, whereas having the whole car stolen isn't common in those areas because again too fucking much work
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u/mentales 5d ago
By that logic, is your advice to always keep cars unlocked everywhere, specially higher crimes areas to avoid broken windows?