Whether or not you are a car owner, you should always be vigilant as to where you keep your belongings in your vehicle as well as how much stuff you leave in your car.  For some car thieves, it isn’t so much as what the car looks like as much as it is the type of stuff that you’re leaving out in the open.

In the police department, the instructors would periodically check our vehicles to make sure that we didn’t have anything left out in the open such as Mp3 players, expensive sunglasses, wallets, purses, bags or even cash (yes, it happens).  Additionally, there were people who would actually leave their doors unlocked or who  would simply forget to lock their car doors, which gave instructors the perfect opportunity to pull out every single personal item in the vehicle and leave it on display in the main room of the police academy.

Whatever you do, make sure that your doors are locked and your car is as empty as possible.  If you must leave things in your car, make sure that they are well out of the prying eyes of unsuspected people.