NOT ALL THIEVES ARE STUPID

1. LONG-TERM PARKING:
Some people left their car in the long-term parking at San Jose while away, and someone broke into the car. Using the information on the car's registration in the glove compartment, they drove the car to the people's home in Pebble Beach and robbed it. So I guess if we are going to leave the car in long-term parking, we should NOT leave the registration/insurance cards in it, nor your remote garage door opener.
This gives us something to think about with all our new electronic technology.

2. GPS:
Someone had their car broken into while they were at a football game. Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard. When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen. The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house. They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.

Something to consider if you have a GPS - don't put your home address in it... Put a nearby address (like a store or gas station) so you can still find your way home if you need to, but no one else would know where you live if your GPS were stolen.

3. CELL PHONES:
This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her cell phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag, which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet, etc., was stolen. Twenty minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says, “I received your text asking about our Pin number and I've replied a little while ago.” When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn. The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text “hubby” in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.

Moral of the lesson:
a. Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list. Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mum, etc....
b. Very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back.
c. Also, when you're being texted by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came from them. If you don't reach them, be very careful about going places to meet “family and friends” who text you.

4. PURSE IN THE GROCERY CART SCAM:
A lady went grocery-shopping at a local mall and left her purse sitting in the children's seat of the cart while she reached something off a shelf... wait till you read the WHOLE story! Her wallet was stolen, and she reported it to the store personnel. After returning home, she received a phone call from the Mall Security to say that they had her wallet and that although there was no money in it, it did still hold her personal papers. She immediately went to pick up her wallet, only to be told by Mall Security that they had not called her. By the time she returned home again, her house had been broken into and burglarized. The thieves knew that by calling and saying they were Mall Security, they could lure her out of her house long enough for them to burglarize it.

I knew a chap who entered the address of his local police station to his Satnav. An interesting welcome party would be awaiting any thieves!

No they're not, but . . .

QuoteUsing the information on the car's registration in the glove compartment

Quotea GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard.

QuoteA lady went grocery-shopping at a local mall and left her purse sitting in the children's seat of the cart while she reached something off a shelf

. . . obviously a lot of the public ARE STUPID!! 


Paul

Quote from: Only Me on August 25, 2013, 07:34:10 PM
Sound like American quotes to me... I mean who in the uk has an electic garage door opener

A few people do. They are notorious with amateur radio people as some are badly made so do things like lock and refuse to open, or randomly open exposed to strong (but legal) amateur radio signals in the 70cms band.

Alan

One of my neighbours has got one (up and over door weighs a ton)!

My satnav "home destination" is a few miles away, and I know my way home from there.

Only time anything in car with address details is when car goes for service and service book needed.

I appreciate that this is a family forum so will keep the following story as clean as possible, if it is considered to be too risqué, then please delete.

Here we go. In the early 1980's, before the internet was even dreamed of a very enterprising person saw an ad in one of the Lad's Mags of the time placed by a firm in Hong Kong for a job lot of1,000 rubber d*ldos for sale at £1 each. He sent off his cheque and in the meantime opened a business account with one of the high street banks in the name of the GIANT RUBBER D*LDO COMPANY.
The said goods arrived and he took out a number of small ads in the Sunday papers, offering the said items at £10 each plus p&p.
He was inundated with cheques and the first one thousand customers did indeed receive the item, however from 1,001 he put their cheques in the company account and sent them a cheque from the same account for £10 plus p&p, of course each had the company name in large black capital letters as above.
Only three people cashed the cheques!
The money was in the account and the cheques would have been honoured, but people obviously didn't want to go into their banks with such a cheque and so put it down to experience.

He made £10,000 from the sale of the items plus a further £15,000 from people not cashing the cheques he had sent out.

The money he received stayed in the business account for six months until the cheques had expired, he had not broken the law, after all you cannot make people cash a cheque.
Now that is clever, wish I had thought of it.

Quote from: Only Me on August 25, 2013, 07:34:10 PM
Sound like American quotes to me... I mean who in the uk has an electic garage door opener

Erm, my Mum. She's 80 and can't lift up a double door.
Mind you, the garage is not connected to the house in any way

Quote from: Only Me on August 25, 2013, 07:34:10 PM
Sound like American quotes to me... I mean who in the uk has an electic garage door opener

More to the point, here in the UK we manage to use the perfectly adequate word "burgle".  "Burglarize" is, frankly, an abomination.

It is to be regretted that "Clever" thieves cannot put their intelligence to better use!

Akin to those who have the expertise and knowledge to spam or send out viruses, just think of the good that could be done another way.

Peter.

Oh there are plenty of intelligent thieves who don't break into houses and cars: we call them bankers, and some of them even manage to get their hands on knighthoods!

Cheers, NeMo

Quote from: petercharlesfagg on August 26, 2013, 07:00:08 AM
It is to be regretted that "Clever" thieves cannot put their intelligence to better use!

Quote from: petercharlesfagg on August 26, 2013, 07:00:08 AM
It is to be regretted that "Clever" thieves cannot put their intelligence to better use!

Peter.

They do, they become MPs and claim for duck houses !

Quote from: Only Me on August 25, 2013, 10:27:27 PM

Quote from: dodger112958 on August 25, 2013, 10:14:31 PM
I appreciate that this is a family forum so will keep the following story as clean as possible, if it is considered to be too risqué, then please delete.

Here we go. In the early 1980's, before the internet was even dreamed of a very enterprising person saw an ad in one of the Lad's Mags of the time placed by a firm in Hong Kong for a job lot of1,000 rubber d*ldos for sale at £1 each. He sent off his cheque and in the meantime opened a business account with one of the high street banks in the name of the GIANT RUBBER D*LDO COMPANY.
The said goods arrived and he took out a number of small ads in the Sunday papers, offering the said items at £10 each plus p&p.
He was inundated with cheques and the first one thousand customers did indeed receive the item, however from 1,001 he put their cheques in the company account and sent them a cheque from the same account for £10 plus p&p, of course each had the company name in large black capital letters as above.
Only three people cashed the cheques!
The money was in the account and the cheques would have been honoured, but people obviously didn't want to go into their banks with such a cheque and so put it down to experience.

He made £10,000 from the sale of the items plus a further £15,000 from people not cashing the cheques he had sent out.

The money he received stayed in the business account for six months until the cheques had expired, he had not broken the law, after all you cannot make people cash a cheque.r
Now that is clever, wish I had thought of it.

Old as the hills that one!! Urban myth! I never had any returns due to the return address

This is from the film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

The film nicked it from long standing legend