Motorists have heard these warnings countless times: Don’t tempt thieves. Don’t leave valuables in your car. Yet such common-sense advice is often ignored.
In New York City, the theft of valuables from cars has become such a problem that police officers have developed a new way to remind residents they’re leaving themselves vulnerable to crooks.
Police in Brooklyn are taking pictures of valuables left in vehicles, then mailing the pics to the car owners, the New York Post reports. The mailing includes the picture and a note that says, “If we spot it, so can thieves.”
Not all residents are pleased with this tactic. Harry Robles, 49, tells The Post the program gives police officers an bogus excuse to run license plate numbers.
“When they run the plates, everything comes up — like summonses or tickets,” he told the newspaper. “I know how cops work. There’s something else going on.”
How you can prevent car theft
Here are a few tips on how you can prevent car theft and theft of valuables from cars:
– The first is simple. Don’t leave your purse, laptop or cell phone in plain view.
– When exiting your vehicle, ask yourself, ‘Do I have my key?” and “Are the doors and windows closed and locked?”
– Park in a well-lit area.
– When parking at home, park in the garage, if possible, instead of your driveway.
Featured Gallery
The vast majority of Americans — approximately 250 million — live in or around a city. That means most of you know how frustrating it can be to putter along traffic-choked roads and sit in endless delays.
And traffic doesn’t only cost time. Drivers lose money idling away their gasoline.
There are a number of studies that analyze exactly how much time and gas drivers fritter away. When you combine the two factors, and add in a look at overall population density, you can get a more complete, city-by-city look at the worst overall cities to operate a car.
The folks atNerdWallet.com did just that. Using data from a study done by the Texas Transportation Institute on the annual hours commuters spend in traffic delays, gas price data from 304 different urban areas compared to the national average and census information on population density to give the 50 largest metropolitan areas a final score.
The lower the overall score, the worse for the city’s drivers. Here’s a look at their 10 worst cities, and here’s hoping you’re not on the roads of these cities today:
Image Credit:Joe Shlabotnik, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 48
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: -2.71%
Population density (people per square mile): 11,379.5
Overall score for car owners: 58.2
Image Credit:dennis, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 44
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +15.16%
Population density (people per square mile): 4,375.3
Overall score for car owners: 55.1
Image Credit:Si1very, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 45
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +17.28%
Population density (people per square mile): 5,572.6
Overall score for car owners: 51.3
Image Credit:lrargerich, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 61
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +5.38%
Population density (people per square mile): 7,004.0
Overall score for car owners: 49.4
Image Credit:Chris and/or Kevin, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 67
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: -3.07%
Population density (people per square mile): 9,856.5
Overall score for car owners: 48.9
Image Credit:dherman1145, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 53
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +3.04%
Population density (people per square mile): 12,792.7
Overall score for car owners: 48.7
Image Credit:Willem van Bergen, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 61
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +7.24%
Population density (people per square mile): 8,092.3
Overall score for car owners: 46.5
Image Credit:RodneyRamsey, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 61
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +5.75%
Population density (people per square mile): 17,179.2
Overall score for car owners: 36.1
Image Credit:moonlightbulb, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 51
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +30.30%
Population density (people per square mile): 11,841.8
Overall score for car owners: 29.1
Image Credit:grendelkhan, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 59
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +7.67%
Population density (people per square mile): 27,012.4
Overall score for car owners: 23.2
Image Credit:danielfoster437, Flickr