[gfmucci]

A call to one or two of your favorite golf cart companies should get you answers on this question.

[villages07]

The original post in this thread was also on the Virginia Trace forum board. There was an update posted there yesterday. Here it is:

Re: Stolen Golf Carts in The Spanish Springs area.
Last week I posted a warning sent to me about golf carts being stolen.
Here is a message from a person who read that warning:
"Maxine, I called the Lady Lake Police Department today. When I told them that
there was a rumor that 55 golf carts had been stolen (etc.) I was told that
number was excessive. Although the person I talked to could not give me an
exact number, she indicated that maybe a dozen was closer. "

[Talk Host]

Originally Posted by villages07

The original post in this thread was also on the Virginia Trace forum board. There was an update posted there yesterday. Here it is:

Re: Stolen Golf Carts in The Spanish Springs area.
Last week I posted a warning sent to me about golf carts being stolen.
Here is a message from a person who read that warning:
"Maxine, I called the Lady Lake Police Department today. When I told them that
there was a rumor that 55 golf carts had been stolen (etc.) I was told that
number was excessive. Although the person I talked to could not give me an
exact number, she indicated that maybe a dozen was closer. "


If it is a dozen, rather than 55, is that just in Lady Lake, or Villages wide?

Think the post said "55 thefts"? This could mean thefts of other stuff related to golf carts like golf clubs, bags, etc.

Quote from original post by Caper. "According to the officer who took our statement, there has been a rash of thefts (approx. 55) over the past couple of months."

Doubt if thefts of golfing items like clubs and the like make the Villages Daily Sun. This could also mean in other communities with golf carts in Lake, Sumter and Marion County. Must be a lot of communities in these Counties where some of the residents also have their own golf carts or use golf carts at various golf courses??

[bimmertl]

Today's Daily Sun (Local section page C5) states two carts were stolen from Golf Car World over the past weekend. The article goes on to state "Since the beginning of the year, 11 golf carts have been reported stolen in or around The Villages."

[hdken]

Would "The Club" work in these situations, wedged between the steering wheel and the brake pedal?

[bimmertl]

So far it's 11 carts since the first of the year. Two of them were stolen from a dealership. I also recall that a couple were stolen from Villages carts by some teens and the carts were actually recovered. So perhaps it's as few as 7 private stolen carts and not recovered.

Conservatively there are 60,000 residents here. So figure 30K in residences on the low side. Going really conservative and assuming snow birds etc. assume there are 10,000 golf carts. The odds of an one persons car being stolen are slim to none despite the recent thefts, even if 100 carts were stolen.

If somebody wants your cart, they are going to get it. The Club, special key, Lojack or whatever. Unless you have some type of speciality ultra expensive cart don't waste your
money on theft prevention. Use common sense, take the keys out and park it in the open when out in public. Then don't worry about it.

Collision and theft insurance is extremely inexpensive. I pay less than $60 per year for that coverage on a $6,000 cart. From an insurance company perspective the numbers of thefts are "actuarily insignificant".

On ocassion things get somewhat exaggerated on this site. Save your worrying for the normal stuff, high cholesterol and blood pressure, arthritis, knee replacement etc. and forget the golf cart theft "problem".

[Muncle]

Boy I hate it when people do this, but

I suspect your moderately conservative estimate of 30K carts is fairly close to accurate. And I agree that, like cars, if they really want your cart they're going to get it regardless of any theft prevention short of Couzin Bubba (not Bubbalarry) with a 12 gauge sitting in the front seat. As you say, just use common sense and, if it happens, it happens.

[bimmertl]

It's 10,000 carts, 30,000 homes. I think that's a very low estimate on carts, but it illustrates the slim odds of being involved in a theft.

[Muncle]

Sorry about my misread. I believe your estimates are low, as you said. If we've got 65K+ residents, I suspect that's close to 40K homes. And just from anecdotal observation, I'd think 90% would have carts. But it doesn't matter. Even your lowest numbers demonstrated the point well.

[cabo35]

Bimmer....It appears you are dismissing the cart theft matter based on scale. The problem is... no one is sure of the scale because of the multi-jurisdictional composition of the Villages and the uncertainty of where the newspaper got its info. I have seen nothing that suggests or validates an actual number of thefts or any empirical data that gives an answer. I covered that in a previous post.

Further, if you extrapolate the dubious number of 11 thefts since the first of the year reported in the newspaper, it could suggest a trend of 44 thefts a year. That in my opinion is a consequential number. My experience in The Villages, for better or worse, is that crime statistics of any sort seem to be understated.

There is a theory on crime that is recognized by most scholars as sound. It is called The Broken Windows Theory. It was developed by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling. William Bratten predicated his crime fighting approach on it in New York City and achieved more than modest success in reducing crime giving Rudy a great deal of credit for successful crime fighting. In summary, greatly oversimplified, it suggests that if you do not pay attention to small crimes and disorders they will grow in volume and intensity because it suggests people don't care. The theory has critics but most professional law enforcement people believe it.

Another perspective is the potential for escalation of cart theft when an owner or witness confronts the thieves. A foot chase, an assault, the use of a weapon can all cause injury or worse to a victim or citizen who intervenes at the point of theft. I know we have some tough old birds living in The Villages but some of the local "bangers" are fleet afoot can be a little wacky from what I've seen an heard. Ignoring the problem encourages and emboldens miscreants further exacerbating the problem and creating more potential for confrontation.

I usually agree with your well thought out posts. We have a divergence of opinion on this one although I agree that there are issues that are more important.

[joe kaelin]

I don't mean to "beat a dead horse" here, but has anyone thought about what the financial condition of Sumter County was before The Villages began building all of those tax paying residences? I'm told it was the poorist county in the State. Now, what I'd like to ask is, what do the County leaders do with the additional property tax revenues they've been receiving from the Villages, besides providing police patrols? I'm willing to bet the funds aren't returned to us in the way of services. I really don't think we should cut them too much slack on this issue. The Villages has been a windfall for Sumter County coffers. The least they can do is provide us with a couple of additional patrol cars if needed.

[gfmucci]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

I don't mean to "beat a dead horse" here, but has anyone thought about what the financial condition of Sumter County was before The Villages began building all of those tax paying residences? I'm told it was the poorist county in the State. Now, what I'd like to ask is, what do the County leaders do with the additional property tax revenues they've been receiving from the Villages, besides providing police patrols? I'm willing to bet the funds aren't returned to us in the way of services. I really don't think we should cut them too much slack on this issue. The Villages has been a windfall for Sumter County coffers. The least they can do is provide us with a couple of additional patrol cars if needed.

* Grumpy has it nailed.* The Villages is the goose that laid the golden egg for Sumter County.* There ought to be some accountability of where the extra tax dollars are going.* Enhanced law enforcement from whence the windfall tax dollars came would be a good start.* And I mean "windfall" because it is a known fact that retirees have less of a fiscal impact on local government services than any other demographic segment.* s/Grumpier.

[The Great Fumar]

Actually their have only been 11 stolen sense the first of the year!!!!!However thats still to many.........

padlock fumar

[Barefoot]

Originally Posted by DENNIS G

If you have gotten another cart and have not changed the ignition key to uncommon key, I recommend that you do. We changed the ignition key on his new replacement cart.

Dennis, seems like a good idea to change the ignition key to an uncommon key. I'm wondering if you can tell us how you changed the ignition key on your friend's replacement cart and how much it cost. Thanks.