car vandalism problem

[Zarcath]

New Years day morning someone tried to bust into my moms car, they broke the lock up but they didn't get in. Three days before that our neighbor got their lock broken too. Two months ago my window got smashed, a few months before that someone broke the doorhandle off my old car and months before that someone did succeed in breaking into my moms car.

So in the last year we've had 4 break ins costing us about $1,000, since each case the damage was minor enough not to be covered by the deductable.

We live in an apartment and there's limited garage parking so a lot of us have to park on the street right out in front. The problems are two-fold.

1. There's a street cross walk that spans across the freeway that leads to many middle-schools for what I'd call low/lower middle-class kids. Also a shitty ass park around the corner, so there's a lot of foot traffic from undersirables.

2. The area we park at has about a 9 foot wall on the apartment side, so from the apartment looking down and out to the street, you can't see the parked cars.

I'm pissed. I know another neighbor got their car broken into while it was in the garage. I know the police can't do shit to catch who evers doing this. Is there anything that can be done?

I was thinking something like a neighborhood watch, but I can't concieve of a way to keep an eye on our cars 24/7 without it being a pain in the ass. If I set up a camera it could be easily destroyed, and theres no gaurantee I would catch their face. I was thinking about setting my car up with bait (leaving my stereo faceplate in and my ipod), but if I miss them I lose out on a lot, and even if I do catch them, I'm still going to get car damage, and I don't think anyone reimburses good semeritans?

The break ins seem to occur in the early mornings, from about 2-8ish AM.

Is there anyone we can threaten to do something about it? the landlord? doesn't this devalue the property or something?

[ValkyrieIsAboutToDie]

Do it like the Aussies do to the Abos. Video camera and a crowbar.

[chaos]

Does the landlord not know about this?

Honestly, depending on where you live, it's cheaper to just move that fight this shit. I had the same type of thing back when I used to live in Alamenda, CA. The fucked up thing was, we knew who was doing it, it was just a bunch of kids fucking around getting high or whatever. Still no one ever caught them in the act and the cops won't do anything without that. You could try video taping it somehow and hope for the best, but really unless you catch them doing it, and have at least one person you aren't related to or fucking also there to see it, nothing will happen.

[Zarcath]

After the cars in the garage got broken into they set up web cam security cameras but I have no fucking idea if they're actually working or not.

Also since the most incidents are happening on the sidewalk/street, I'm not sure where the apartment zoning ends, so if it's public, the manager wouldn't give a shit right?

[kogarne]

nt

[Nezarus]

Honestly I don't know how viable this would be for your situation, but check out things like this:

How to use your PC and Webcam as a motion-detecting and recording security camera - Simplehelp

I could see things like high traffic, picture quality or poor lighting being a problem for a set up like this, but it might beat purchasing expensive security equipment?

[Icedtea]

This might sound crazy, but why don't you just move to a neighborhood that isn't riddled with crime?

[chaos]

Originally Posted by Icedtea

This might sound crazy, but why don't you just move to a neighborhood that isn't riddled with crime?

Stuff like this happens in most neighborhoods, especially when you don't own and are renting. Hardly "riddled with crime".

The apartment manager doesn't have to care from a legal perspective if you are parking on the street, but he should care. I'm not sure what he can do about it but if he really doesn't know it definitely needs to be brought to his attention. Some apartment managers are really cool people and will try to help if they can, some are just dicks.

The camera thing could be tricky to get working but if you do catch them it would be worth it.

[Icedtea]

Originally Posted by chaos

Stuff like this happens in most neighborhoods, especially when you don't own and are renting.

No, it doesn't.

Anyone who rents a place somewhere where their cars get broken into repeatedly is renting in the wrong place and is dumb for staying there.

[chaos]

where is this magical place you know of where kids never do stupid shit? or criminals never come? I've lived in a lot of places, and I've never known a place that didn't have some crime.

[Thorpe]

I've lived in two places over the course of the last three years that aren't what one could consider "nice" or crime-free but I have never had any problems with my car and it is one of the newer ones on the street. Everywhere is different. And in my case, the area had plenty of kids (middle school through college).

[Icedtea]

Originally Posted by chaos

where is this magical place you know of where kids never do stupid shit? or criminals never come? I've lived in a lot of places, and I've never known a place that didn't have some crime.

We live in Lee's Summit, MO. and my wife's car got broken into 1 time in the 22 years she's lived here.

We lived in an apartment in Independance, MO. ,which has a little more crime, for like 8 months with zero problems.

It's one thing to have your car broken into once or your mailbox bashed one time or maybe twice in a couple years. But if your shit is getting broken into every couple of months you need to find a new place to live, seriously.

[chaos]

Nah I'd agree but it's been my experience that while you got your shit broken into 5 times over the course of a year, another guy lives in the same place who's never had any problems. You ask him and it's a great neighborhood, ask the victim of the crime and they'll tell you it's Watts.

Hell even when I lived in downtown Norfolk, VA, a city reknown for it's crime, I never had any problems. Doesn't mean it didn't happen though. Also lived in Alameda, CA and in Union City, CA. Alameda was a nice place to live, high in "retarded" crimes though(kids breaking into cars just to do it, spraypainting stuff, shit like that) and Union City is like the drug depot for the bay area or something, seems every week the cops were in our neighborhood. On New Year's here in Alexandria, VA I heard gunshots (i know the difference between fireworks and gunshots) in the next apartment complex over, and this is a really nice area. You never can be sure.

[Dis]

I lived in Houston, TX. For the people who know it, we used to live in the apartments located off of Hollister, pretty close to where Tidwell intersects Hollister. And for those who dont know, that is a hop, skip, and a jump from the ghetto.

The wife and I had zero break ins for our two cars that were parked at the apartment outside. Now the crime situation got so bad (we had police helicoptors overhead which over time seem to be a nightly occurance, but we never had a car break in) that we ended up buying a house and moving into white suburba (zero worries about crime).

If the situation were in my corner, I would just move. Think about what you said, 1k a person was the cost of getting your cars fixed. Depending on where you live that can be a month or two of rent. Factor in that it happened to you twice and once to your mother? Thats a lot of dough. Just move.

[Daerath]

Originally Posted by chaos

Stuff like this happens in most neighborhoods, especially when you don't own and are renting. Hardly "riddled with crime".

Not in Northern VA it doesn't. We police our shit.