Beware: Don’t Hide Items in Car Trunk: Thieves Use Secret Trick to Steal
With car theft rampant across the country, drivers are concerned about thieves breaking in and stealing expensive items. A trunk, for cars that have one, is viewed by many as the most secure place to store your valuables. However, car thieves can still steal items in your trunk by using a secret trick.
Car theft trick shows why the trunk is not a secure place to hide items
The trunk might seem like a safe place to hide your items. They are away from the prying eyes of car thieves. Also, the trunk can be locked, which makes it seemingly difficult for thieves to break into it.
However, a recent video from the Mark Rober YouTube channel reveals a secret trick that enables thieves to access the trunk. Rober, a former NASA engineer, is legendary for his anti-theft device. On the outside, it looks like a box with expensive electronics, such as an Xbox. However, on the inside, it features cameras, a tracking system, fart spray, glitter bombs, and other deterrents.
Rober first used the device to stop thieves that steal packages on people’s porches. The thieves take the box home, open it up, and then all havoc breaks loose. With the cameras and tracking system, the police can locate the perpetrators and arrest them. This resulted in the takedown of a $60 million international crime ring.
Rober then used the device to target car thieves by leaving it on the seats inside of vehicles in San Francisco, California. The city has a high rate of vehicle break-ins — an average of 74 per day, per NBC Bay Area. The same thing happened as with the porch grabbers. The car thieves took the box home, got bombarded with fart spray and glitter bombs, and later were arrested.
Thieves break small side window, then pull down rear seat to access trunk
However, due to Rober’s fame, the car theft crime rings in San Francisco became aware of the anti-theft device and were cautious about stealing boxes from the seats of vehicles. Instead, they broke into the trunk.
As seen in the video below at the 11-minute mark, footage shows thieves looking into the cars with the anti-theft device, but they didn’t steal it. After that, Rober made the box smaller to appear less suspicious.
This time around, the thieves did something different. They smashed the small window toward the rear side of the car. However, they still didn’t steal the box. Initially, Rober assumed that this was because the thieves couldn’t open the door.
However, after viewing the video footage from inside the cabin, it “told a different story.” The reason for breaking the small window was to pull the back seat down and check the trunk for valuables. And this was done in a matter of seconds.
This shows why the trunk is not a secure place to hide items from car thieves. They can quickly break the small side rear window, pull down the rear seats to access the trunk, and steal any valuables.
Alternative places to safely hide valuables in a vehicle
If the trunk is not a safe place to hide valuable items from car thieves, then what’s a more secure option? The most obvious way is to simply not leave expensive items in your vehicle, especially if it’s parked in an area that’s prone to break-ins. Carry them with you if possible.
Another option is a lockable glove box. Some vehicles also have center console safes. However, thieves can still break into these things, too. Alternatively, you can use a secret stash spot. Per CarVertical, this includes under the seats, the spare wheel area, air vents, and a compartment under the passenger’s feet. Also, many cars have hidden compartments. And if you want, you can have one custom-built.
