LOCK your cars!
 

Yes, we live in paradise. Yet, there are thieves here too, like everywhere else.

We repeatedly read "_________ (fill in the blanks) stolen from the unlocked car at a Rec Center."

C'mon people, use some common sense and LOCK your cars.

READ: https://www.**************.com/2025/...eation-center/

Or, you can leave the car unlocked if you don’t leave stuff out in the open or that stuff you don’t want taken? What about golf carts, LOL. BTW, Your link did not work.

I’m from NY. Locking the car is part of my muscle memory.

Lock your car if you leave in your driveway. Neighbor did not they opened garage door from the car. She was home and scared them away. She did call police.

Had a friend that said anyone that leaves stuff easy to steal (like a bicycle without a lock) deserves to have it stolen. Seemed like he was saying it is OK to steal?

Dumped the lowlife.

The closer houses are together, the easier the target for shoppers. They drive in or walk in to gated communities and can easily have 100 driveways to shop at all within 20 minutes. It can well be worth those that live 20 miles away to come get several hundred dollars free for an hours' worth of work. I spent many years chasing those types of crimes, but when video became common place in the early 2000s, it really changed the game. Still was frequent, but you could put a face on the scene.

You can get a simple wireless light/video/motion that will pop on and scare anyone away at night for about 50 bucks. Sad for our area, but heavily populated areas are targets for people to travel to and commit crimes.

I always lock my vehicle, even when it is in my garage in case a lowlife jimmies the door. Also, I never leave anything that looks valuable laying on a seat or the floor where it is visible. Skilled thieves know how to easily open locked vehicle doors or break windows. A friend of mine 30 years ago kept her maps in a laptop case. Laptops were large and thick back then so the case was sizable. A thief in broad daylight broke a window in her vehicle in the parking lot while she was in the gym. Pretty funny when they discovered maps instead of a laptop. When I take roadtrips I try to stop at diners and park where I can watch my vehicle through a window while I eat.

I'm also a New Yorker; you can't fault someone for not locking their car.
As New Yorkers locking up everything automatically is in our DNA.

Never locked our cars, ONE because there is nothing to steal. But a locked car can end up with a broken window

Two the bear is going to get in one way or another.

Three firearm is only in vehicle when transported from one space to another.

Where I come from, we leave our cars unlocked with the key in the car. House unlocked too. Old habits are hard to break.

Never say there is nothing to steal.
In today's world don't be surprised if you return to your vehicle and find the seats and the steering wheel missing.

I can't believe how many times I've read that someone broke into a home by using the garage remote from the car in the driveway. Think about it folks ... the key to your home is sitting in your vehicle outside. You might as well leave your house unlocked.

Suggestion: Take the single-button garage door opener out of the car and replace it with the kind that requires a code to be entered first (same kind you hang outside your garage). Sure, you now need to enter a code from your car to operate the door. But, a thief that breaks into your car does not have a key to your house.

Bonus replace heat and cool seats with the new heat cool message seats. Heated steering wheel with the new heat/cool. Things should have a positive that came from a negative. Just like if your house burns to the ground, can’t change the outcome, but nobody liked tge floor plan anyway

I just don’t have room in my memory to add worries of useless needless possible things that may or may not happen.

This is so true. People are now finding pieces of their landscaping missing. A hole where a shrub used to be! There is a video posted on Nextdoor from someone's Ring doorbell of a lady approaching a house with her off-leash dog, pausing for a moment at the front door, and then proceeding to steal some large metal chairs off the porch (including the seat cushions) and loading everything into her truck. Thieves are bold now days. I lock my doors and have installed multiple security cameras all around my house. I'm not going to make it easy for thieves to help themselves to my stuff.

Sometimes thieves? can be humorous.....
 

Used to work at this place (90's) where one of the night shift employees used to lock up his Harley in the parking lot. The lot was city owned and had a long history of vehicle break ins and thefts. He used to run heavy chain through both of his wheels, through the frame, then around a telephone pole, and it had some big expensive high security padlock with a crazy key that had bumps and dimples on all four sides.

He comes out in the morning, bike is there, but minus the lock and chain. Bike was fine, so he believes the thieves might have been scared away by something before they could grab the bike. Next day he comes in and was freaked. Both the chain and lock were there locked around the pole. We tell him he likely forgot to lock it, so somebody pranked him. Then he tells us that would have been impossible because the key can't be removed when the shackle is unlocked/open, and the only keys for it are on his fob and home in his safe.

I don't believe he ever figured it out.

And why would you leave a gun in your car?

Breaking into someone's car or opening their garage door is a good way to get shot.

Never understood why someone would value other people's stuff over their own life. 🤔

I’m from Atlanta. Same.

Grandma always said locks are for honest people.

What about your garage door opener?

Lock
 

When our car stays in the driveway, the garage door remote comes into the house. Living in CT taught us many life lessons.

We had the Sheriff's Department speak to our club. They advise people to lock their cars. When I hear people say that The Villages is paradise and there is no need to lock doors, my question is are you kidding? There are more than 150,000 people living in The Villages -- not everyone is honest. Lock your cars.

Proof why you should lock your car
 

Last week, after I left a bluegrass club jam, I stopped in the parking lot at Sumter Landing and left my banjo sitting on the back seat of my car. I didn't lock my car as I didn't expect to be gone long.

When I came back to my car, I looked in the back seat and, OMG, there were now three banjos sitting on my back seat!

That's proof as to why you should lock your car!

"Both the chain and lock were there locked around the pole. We tell him he likely forgot to lock it, so somebody pranked him. Then he tells us that would have been impossible because the key can't be removed when the shackle is unlocked/open, and the only keys for it are on his fob and home in his safe.

I don't believe he ever figured it out."

Does sound like a prank by a coupla' fellow employees. Good friends? Good laugh!

Back in the 80's I had a friend who was going to a job interview. She was wearing a suit and heals and normally dressed in jeans, casual shirt and sneakers. As she was getting ready to back the car out of her driveway a man walked up, opened the passengers side door and told her he needed a ride. She said no. He sat down in the passengers seat and insisted she give him a ride. He started to grab her. She punched him, over and over and over again in his face. He got out of the car and ran up the street to get away from her. She was livid. In heals she started chasing him but couldn't run in heals very well. One of her neighbors saw what was happening and told her to stop so she wouldn't get hurt. She called the police and described the man. This happened in Greenwich, CT. The police drove different suspects past a location where my friend was and she was able to pick out the man who had gotten in her car. He had been involved, with other people, in car thefts from Bridgeport, CT to Greenwich, CT and area that covered almost 30 miles.

It's not JUST the local perps coming here to commit a crime, it's the percentage of villagers who have a criminal past who are "retired" now from their life of crime. Criminals don't just stop when they retire. Once a thief, always a thief.

I've found the thieves in the Villages to be very friendly, like Tom Hanks in The LadyKillers.

There are four garage door openers in a drawer in my office. I can ask my car to open the garage door, or my phone, or my tablet. Haven’t had a garage door remote in a car for over 10 years. Nothing in my Glove compartment either, digital for any insurance, registration, or permit, for years. But my parents still have a remote in their car, their in their 80s.

No thief Utopia
 

Utopia??

Security in villages
 

I always lock my car, close the garage doors and never leave anything in a golf cart.

I have cameras on my home as I travel back and forth from the villages to Virginia. I’ve watched one fellow walk up to my front door and try the handle to see if the door was locked. Once he could not get in he walked away. Just a few days ago another fellow walked up to my front door (with screened in patio) and saw the camera door bell and turned around and departed. These are guys in their eary 20s. Was told by sheriff they enter homes when the front door is unlocked and snatch a purse and run out.

We think we are safe inside the “bubble” but you must be security conscious.

Thanks for encouraging the possible not so honest viewers reading these posts.