Apparently car burglaries are on the rise in Austin.

I’ve had my car broken into twice in my lifetime. It’s not a fun experience… the feeling of violation, the anger that some punk asshole decided instead of working hard they’d hardly work and just take something of mine.

I used to work with a guy that spent time working in the Maine legal system. We were going to lunch together and I was surprised when we got to the parking lot and his car doors were unlocked. I asked him about it. He told me that in the end, it doesn’t matter. The key thing to do if you want to avoid getting your car broken into is to not leave anything in the car. The thief is looking for easy targets and desirable things: money, cigarettes, CD’s, things they can quickly rip off and sell or directly consume themselves. So if you basically leave nothing in your car but your car, there’s not much to worry about. If they want the car itself (or just want to vandalize), then there’s just not much you can do period. He said in his time he’d seen all sorts of cars come in… steering wheel locks are easily defeated. If the criminal wants it bad enough, they’ll get it and that’s why you keep your insurance paid up. In the end it still sucks to have such assholes existing in the world and that we even have to modify our lives and behavior to avoid and minimize the impacts from these assholes, but such is life.