thieves suck!

[Clay]

Hi all,

Last night some worthless SOB broke into my truck and my wifes minivan and stole my checkbook and my wifes purse and wallet and four dvd movies that we rented. So I have had to spend my whole morning calling and canceling this and changing that.. What a pain in the rear!!! Whoever the thief was they hit our whole neigborhood. The strange thing is they passed up a car potable dvd player, a lot of cds, I had a box of hunting stuff, ammo, knives, a tool box full of new tools. all that stuff is fine. I am sure they were looking for stuff to steal our identity.

The thing that really ticks me off is the check book cover and the purse and wallet were ones that I made my self. The value on those is a hundred times what any insurance will cover. Not that he insurance will cover any of it...

Here is a picture of the purse and wallet.

[CitizenKate]

Same thing happened to me last year when I was parked at the hotel on a business trip in Kansas City. I ended up having to cancel all my meetings and spend the remainder of my time there making arrangements to repair the window, alert the credit bureau, etc. (My auto registration and insurance card were missing, so I was also worried about identity theft.) Fortunately, I had my bank cards and id's with me at the time. The police and hotel management was sympathetic (5 other cars were also broken into at that location), but there was little anyone could do.

Very upsetting experience...

Kate

[usmc0341]

If there is anything good to this situation, it is the fact that they stole unique one of a kind items, which you have pictures of. Those items will make catching them easier for the police. I doubt they would try to pawn the handmade items, however it might jog someones memory if they saw someone with them. Criminals talk which is the demise of there criminal activity alot of times. Talk to your neighbors about the items and make sure the police get copies of the pictures. I know if I pulled someone over with unique items like that they raise alot more questions then the typical traffic stop. Good luck with cancelling all of your credit card stuff, and don't forget to put a flag on your social security number and check your credit reports often for the next 12 to 18 months. Credit companies should provide you with this information since you are a victim of theft. God help them if they make their way over to Baltimore, I hate thieves, especially from fellow leatherworkers!!!!

[wolvenstien]

Bro, you have my sympathy especially after they hit me last November.... You might want to see about investing in a camera that mounts hidden like around the area you park your cars... set it up on a digital system so it only records when there is motion. I have two camera set up now. If anything happens in the future... I have their thieving asses on video. I would love to catch one in the neighborhood....

[Clay]

Update!!!

I am so thankfull to our local police and honest neighbors. The found my wifes purse and wallet and everything was still in it. A neighbor a few blocks away found ithem in his trash can along with a set of socket and wrenches that I did not realize was stolen, he turned it in to the police and they brought it back to us. Things are looking up!!!! Still missing my checkbook and the dvds from blockbuster...Lol

:D

Clay M.

[usmc0341]

That's good news, but how dare them throw fine handcrafted leather goods in the trash!!! Make sure you still watch your credit, because all they need are a couple of indentifiers such as D.O.B., SS#, address for them to steal your identity.

[Johanna]

I never leave anything I care about in the car. I used to work for 7-Eleven on the beach, and there were two thirteen year olds who lived behind the store who could open a car door faster than the locksmith or the police could when someone accidentally locked themselves out. I hope you get your checkbook back, and I hope the karma bus is running down the thieves.

Johanna

[Rawhide]

ClayB,

I would still call the credit bureau and have them place a fraud alert on your identity. Even though you got your stuff back, you never know what they wrote down, or took a picture of. Today's thieves won't need the actual card.

Marlon

[wolvenstien]

ClayB,

I would still call the credit bureau and have them place a fraud alert on your identity. Even though you got your stuff back, you never know what they wrote down, or took a picture of. Today's thieves won't need the actual card.

Marlon

Good advise.... this is very true... could be an act of deception... they have a camera on their phone and take pix of everything before they toss it expecting it to be found and you think that all is ok....

[Beaverslayer]

Rawhide and Wolvie have given you EXCELENT advice. While doing my sentence, I lived with a very large number of people that do exactly what they said. They would steal your wallet or whatnot with your identity papers in it, then take notes or pictures of it. They would also use an electronic device to take the information off you credit cards, even your drivers licence if it has a magnetic stripe on the back.

With this, they are able to "Become" you to a bank or credit issueing company. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime these days, and you have to make sure that there is a "Fraud Alert" put on your credit bureau.

Ken

[JohnD]

That stuff makes me so angry. My wife had her purse stolen from her vehicle in our driveway. We got some stuff back, as the thief left a trail down our street. I guess as they went through it they tossed what they didn't want on the ground and dumped the purse in the dumpster behind a resteraunt at the end of my street.

Sorry to hear you got ripped off, Clay and though, I'm glad you got some of your stuff back I really hope they catch the scumbags that did it. It's such a cowardly thing. Makes me angry.

My sister got a voicemail today from a detective asking something about her credit cards... She's freaking out cause she doesn't have any and can't seem to get in touch wit the detective.

John

[CitizenKate]

That will help avoid losing anything you really care about, but the police told me something interesting... that thieves are more interested in cars that have stuff sitting in the seats, whether they can tell it's something valuable or not, and avoid cars with nothing sitting in the seats. Of course, that makes sense (... duh!), but my car was pretty cluttered when it got broken into (I had all the usual stuff that you bring along on a trip - jacket, thermos... and my bowling ball, which I kept forgetting to bring in the house - whew! - apparently they weren't bowlers, do ya think? I could just see the thieves trying to lug that thing down the street with sirens going off everywhere - ha!) So one way to reduce the odds of even getting your car broken into (which is expensive, even if nothing gets stolen), is to not keep anything in your car, whether it's valuable or not.

Kate

I never leave anything I care about in the car.

[TwinOaks]

Take copies of the police report(s) to your bank(s). When my wife's purse was stolen, I called the cops and made a report. To the banks the next day, where we were able to prove, with the report, that the $400 dollars charged at gas stations wasn't done by us. The scary thing is that almost half of the fraudulent charges on the two cards were done within 30 min of the theft's time frame ( we narrowed it down to about a 15-20 minute window). And yes, it had been left in the car. CYA very well.

+1 Kate, on keeping nothing in it. About 15 years ago my sis' car was burlarized. They never broke the window either- instead, they pried the window frame away from the body of the car and just reached in to unlock it. All the crooks got was some costume jewelry. It took a totally new door to fix the damage. Now, personally, I like the idea of bait and switch...in a boobytrap-ish sort of way, but I hear that can lead to all sorts of legal problems.

Edited January 14, 2008 by TwinOaks