If You Buy Expensive Electronics, Be Careful. You Might Be Being Followed...
Hey there, he's a tip from our good friends up in Canada: If you're buying expensive electronics don't assume you're not being followed to your next destination!
According to the Mississauga News, there has been a rash of vehicle break-ins following expensive purchases at electronics stores. The police think that a group of thieves are watching the stores for potential targets, then following customers who buy "big ticket" items to their next stop—where they then break into the hapless consumer's car and steal their brand new gadget.
Sneaky! Maybe it's a good idea not to stop for Ketchup Flavored Potato Chips on your way home after buying a laptop. Actually, maybe you should try driving 2 hours out of your way to shake the thieves off your trail, that way they won't know where you live... Um. Or maybe you should just avoid leaving expensive electronics in your car. Even in Canada.
Thieves target computer buyers [Mississauga News]
(Photo:Getty)
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Comments:
Now wait just a minute! I thought Michael Moore specifically told us that there was no crime in Canada. I remember in Bowling for Columbine (or as I like to call it, "Canada is Better Than Everyone") that Canadians leave everything unlocked because there's no crime.
He wasn't peddling misinformation, was he?
We've been hering about this more often lately. Moreso in the US news than Canadian news. Remember the PS3 release? A lot of people were followed, and one person went to another launch line and had his car broken into there. Made news on Kotaku, I believe (yes, I count an $800 PS3 as a big ticket electronic purchase).
Buy your expensive electronics, drive home.
Easy fix - don't buy anything expensive.
EVER
Go to store with friend, driving separate vehicles.
Friend waits outside or goes to another store while you buy expensive electronics.
You put expensive electronics in your car and drive to the fast food burger joint where you go inside and sit down and have a meal while leaving your electronics out of sight in your vehicle.
Your friend parks nearby and waits for thieves to strike. He or she then strikes back with:
A baseball bat
A gun
or their car.
Delivered to your house.
@cedarpointfan: Uh, bad idea. Some punks followed a good friend of mine home from a shopping center. Then they returned when nobody was home and ransacked the place. The neighbors thought they were just people helping them move out so they didn't call the police.
This has been going on for eons. In Jersey, you can't even put your many bags in the trunk and return to shopping, folks will break into you car while you're in the mall. It's really bad during the holiday shopping season.
Why not just pull into your local police station on the way home? Or drive like a bat out of hell so if you are being followed, you know it? If the cops pull you over, just tell them you thought a car was following you home from the store. Crying helps.
Easy solution, pistols and pipe clamps. Excellent for thinning a herd of criminals.
solution:
1:buy expensive electronics (be sure to be flashy about it)
2:on the way to another store have your passenger remove said electronics from the box, and either booby trap it, or gps track it.
3: go to another store
4: hurt the potential theifs or profit after you track them back to their home.
Solution: Be homeless and buy nothing.
When I bought a new stereo for my first car, a crazy redneck guy I worked with told me that Circuit City has people that will see what you bought, then find your address and break into your car and steal it back.
I thought he was just weird, or mad that I didn't buy the stereo from him...
Are you just being a dick or what? Michael Moore didn't say anything like that.
You want misinformation, look up some of Rush Limbaugh's "facts".
Don't be a professional athlete in Chicago, either. They are getting robbed left and right.
Sounds like fertile ground for a few "sting" operations.
It's not just big ticket items, but ANYTHING from an electronic store is fair game.
I worked in Canada for a few weeks a couple years ago and bought a DVD box set one afternoon before I went sightseeing.
I left it on the passenger seat in the bag, had a nice afternoon, and came back to a smashed window and no DVD.
Locals told me that car theft is a BIG issue and homeless looking to score money for drugs will often break into cars for spare change. So their solution? Don't lock your car.
WOW! Those canucks are REALLY on the ball! :rolleyes:
Is this a joke? You know... most of us crime-savvy americans know that this can happen. Heck! I only take out my ipod (to attach it to my car stereo)when I am out of my neighborhood (I live in a decent neighborhood btw, but I am not taking any chances) & well on the highway. I also dont blast my car stereo system when I near my destination (be it in a store's parking lot or as I near my home). If you want to keep what is yours... it only makes sense NOT to needlessless show it off to just anybody!
Its also wise not to leave large empty boxes (that once held high-ticket electronics) out for the trash pickup (because you just advertised to your neighborhood that you now own a brand new expensive plasma tv just ready for theft!).
One thing I hate is how when I drive thru my neighborhood in the evening.... there are homes with window shades wide open showcasing that giant plasma tv in the living room. What people dont realize is that thieves are just ALWAYS on the lookout for oportunity. Its like second nature to them to notice vulnerabilities & opportunities that normal people dont even think about.
If you want to keep what is yours.... you have to be smart.
@CEEJEE
don't ever talk about crime ridden jersey unless you're sure to specify north jersey.
that shit is hardly a frequent occurrence around where i live
even still,
I make sure if I'm a bad area in north jersey... lol ... okay Burlington City, I always take my faceplate off my radio and stash it. I don't leave valuables or my ipod on the seat. Just stash 'em in the back or in the console.
an inexpensive car and inexpensive clothing makes you a lesser target, I mean which would you rob? the nicely dressed lady that drive a BMW or some guy that came out of a Honda Accord that is an old model?
@Buran:
Simple.... if you can... get a bag for said expensive item so noone knows what it is when you carry it to your car (when I bought my laptop at best buy I carried it out in a big bag[I got an extra special cheap deal... otherwise I dont shop at best buy] . Obviously with bigger items you cant do this. In that case you drive straight home & just make sure noone's following you. Its also smart to wait til night before lugging in that BIG plasma tv to keep your scumbag neighbors from seeing what you just bought. I believe chris rock made a joke about this that "unless you want to get all your stuff stolen... wait til night before moving your things into the house".... or somethin like that.
Buy 2 - one for the thieves.
Don't leave ANYTHING of value visible inside your car regardless if you are shopping or not! My city is notorious for smash and grabs. My friend had her car window smashed in; the only thing the thief stole was a roll of paper towels in the back seat! That's right...paper towels.
I think that in Florida you can preemptively shoot anyone who you think is threatening you. If those commie Canucks had a law like that they they wouldn't have these sorts of problems.
@LionelEHutz: Sure, because no one ever gets things stolen from their car in Florida *eye rolls*
Friend of mine in FLorida had her purse stolen out of her front seat when the guy smashed her window.... while she was in it.... while the car was moving! (He had the gun. If she had tried using one she would be dead.)
In a U of Guelph (Ontario) parking lot, a thief busted my window and stole my CD player. Lucky the idiot also broke into several other cars and was later caught that evening. My stereo was returned and damages covered by said offender.
Yay campus police!
This is why I drive erratic and very fast, so I can get pulled over. Then if someone was following me, they wouldn't stick around and wait, and if they do, I think I'll be able to tell when that random car pulls behind the cop to wait for me.
@Havok154: Me too! That high speed chase you saw last week on Fox that preempted Simpsons reruns? That was me safeguarding a new plasma TV home. Thanks for the "escort", cops!
Seriously, though, it simply always pays to be wary. Thieves tend to go for the easiest targets - $500 easy dollars is more economic than $1,000 potentially hard ones. Don't be an easy target.
@mike13241: I left it on the passenger seat in the bag...
Oh, man, we're generally nice people, not retarded. And a good number of us aren't anything close to sainthood.
Anything you don't want to lose gets locked in the trunk. Period. Out of sight, out of mind.
Easiest solution -- order your expensive stuff online. Then there's no one seeing you put anything in your car.
Um, this has been happening for years. I remember a car audio chain on Long Island that would install electronics in your car and then install a custom license place frame so they would know exactly which car to have their goons break into later that night.
@bluegus32: I think that was "violent crimes" he was talking about. I take it you didn't see the movie in which case you should jus STFU!
... and a note to the article: O LOVELY CANADA!
@TechnoDestructo: Great idea. I won't mind being the friend dropping the bat right on the would-be robber's head. Then rob them instead. :D
The moral of the story is to buy your big-ticket stuff last and take it straight home.
I guess that's one more reason to live out in the country. Out there there's typically 1/4 mile of private lane between your house and the main road. Someone follows you up the lane, you know they aren't up to any good.
@Buran:
Portkeys
Teleport
Apparate
Floo System
Worm Holes
Jedi Mind Trick ("You don't want to steal the TV")
Yeah, sure. But it being Canada, after they smash your window and steal your new goodies, they leave a While You Were Away card with a smiley-face on it.
@Chicago7: woah! hit a nerve? Or were you in the mood to start an overweight egotistical rich white man fight? Limbaugh vs. Moore
@Chicago7: Yup, I am absolutely being a dick. But just for the record, I'm an equal opportunity dick. I think both Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore are full of sh!t. They are liars and miscreants. Also, let's not forget Michael Savage, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and Bill O'Reilly.
The only reason any of these people make money is because a huge portion of the populace is incapable of thinking for themselves.
Liars and miscreants. All of them.
@superbmtsub: Yup, I've seen all of his crappy-ass movies. Do you want to debate them intellectually with me or do you just want to tell me to shut the f#ck up? Cuz the latter certainly is the more mature way to make your point. /sarcasm
thanks for the advise. but i think their not gonna follow me any longer if i point on their head my m16 rifle.
I lock stuff in the trunk. But the other day it occurred to me that anyone who broke a window and got into the car could sit in the driver's seat, reach down, and pull the trunk release lever *in the car*. :-(
@bluegus32: You're talking about a segment in the movie where it talks about "violent crimes" but you're altering the facts.
"Debate Intellectually" with someone who doesn't know what they're talking about? WOW That's an amazing idea! /sarcasm
Don't make me laugh. There's no point in debate until you retract your false statements. Then we're on equal footing.
I thought Michael Moore said that there were hardly any gun-related murders in Canada?
@superbmtsub: Just for my hunble edification, to which "false statements" do you refer?
And for clarification, what I am talking about is his grossly inaccurate portrayal of a country where there are more guns per capita than the U.S. but he still attempts to portray Canada as a far more peaceful nation. He does this through the use of false statistics (yes, they have been proves false). He also makes a big production in the movie about being able to walk right into homes in Canada where their doors are just left unlocked. The clear implication being that there is so little crime in Canada that its residents have no fear of leaving their front doors wide open.
Now, if you want to argue "facts", then let's look at the unabashed, and undebatable fact that Mr. Moore's movies fabricate statistics and are a remarkable testament to creative film-editing. His movies are so heavily edited that he literally pieces together portions of people's statements to make them into something that was never uttered. Don't believe me? Do some research. It's everywhere. He's been proven to be a fraud. Anyone who denies it is sorely mis-informed.
@bluegus32: You might want to read my FIRST comment to you?
Hint: Key words are "violent" and "crimes"
His movies are movies. There's nothing else to discuss. But if you claim you saw the movie and want to quote it, at least do a good job at it.
Nuff said.
@Chicago7: how very mature of you.
@superbmtsub: No, his movies are classified by him as documentaries. They are not. They are highly skewed opinion pieces. If people saw them as such then I would have no problem with them. But since he markets them as based in fact, that makes him a fraud.
As for both of you -- is there a reason that neither of you is willing to actually come back at me with anything of substance? I outlined my arguments and in response you two throw back at me the intellectual equivalent of "nuh-uh" and "you're a poo-poo head."
if this is what passes for intellectual debate in our society, then I weep for your children. You have failed them.
So if you can't put stuff in your car after you buy it, how are you supposed to get it home?
Pixies?