From The Tips Box: Maximising Chrome, GPS Safety

7 responses to “From The Tips Box: Maximising Chrome, GPS Safety”

1. 

   Steve Bennett

   June 2, 2011

   Setting ‘home’ to the police station makes sense if:
   1) The car thief knowing your home address is of some advantage to them (it’s not)
   2) The car thief driving past a police station is of some advantage to you (it’s not)

   If you stole someone’s car, why on earth would you want to pay them a visit at home? If they’re home and see their car outside, they’ll a) call the police, and b) get a glimpse of you, the thief. There is some very badly thought-through logic present in this paranoia.

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   1. 

      Sam

      June 2, 2011

      +1

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      1. 

         stevjosco

         June 2, 2011

         What if the crook uses your GPS unit to find your house BUT drive there in your car?… maybe they come around in a van with some buddies and clean out your house while you’re away.
         The point is that by not setting your own address as your “Home” you at least don’t have to worry that the b@stard who stole your car knows where you live… unless you’ve left other traces of your identity in the car; such as your mail.

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         1. 

            stevjosco

            June 2, 2011

            Oops! I meant to say, BUT DOESN’T drive there in your car.

            Damn and blast!

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         2. 

            Ads

            June 2, 2011

            So the logic here is “they must be out, i just stole their car” which might make some level of sense, but you still get a pretty short window to break in to a house.

            The logic behind stealing a car is that it is uick, conveniant, and serves a direct purpose (use it in a crime, to leave the scene of a crime, or to sell to a buyer already lined up) to burgle a house you usually spend more time evaluating how empty the house is during the day (eg stay at home mum or not) and how likely you are to get spotted. These 2 things are unknown when you steal the car.

            Also, as if the driver would go to the police station and not notice it on the GPS map beforehand or before they pull in the driveway. Also, even if he walked in the door, they have no idea why he is there as A) you probably haven’t reported it yet and B) they don’t have a photo of him..

            I agree that this is a useless idea based on false logic. I would have expected LH to debunk these ideas, not endorse them!

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            1. 

               stevjosco

               June 2, 2011

               I admit the ‘send ’em to the cops” idea is pretty lame but I really don’t care what address is set as Home as long as it’s not MY home. Maybe the local pub. I’ll ask the boys to beat the crap out of anyone who drives up in my car that isn’t me 😀

   2. 

      Alex Torpey

      June 4, 2011

      Steve –

      1. Car thieves will often, depending on the circumstances, go straight to the person’s house, because odds are if they are stranded without their car they may not be home, which can be determined by simply driving by at little effort or risk.

      2. There are two potential opportunities here. One is if you report your car stolen to your local PD (which you should do *immediately* after discovery) an officer might actually recognize the vehicle as it pulls around a corner or nearby your local PD’s HQ where there is likely dense police presence. The second is that if the area has surveillance cameras you may be able to catch the path that someone takes or grab a photo of the face of the driver when they drive by. And believe it or not, there are cases of criminals driving straight into police driveways without realizing it. It’s a little scary how closely people will follow a GPS sometimes.

      In the town where I am mayor, our PD routinely presents this information to our residents as one easy tip that costs nothing and may end up being of help one day. Plus, most GPS systems have a ‘recent trips’ menu, which would likely have one’s home address in easy reach but still be safe as that information wouldn’t be known to a potential criminal who just sees a listing of random addresses.

      tl;dr This tip has no real drawbacks and could help catch a criminal if the unlikely event of one’s car getting stolen were to happen.

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