1. A friend of a friend 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.

A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that someone she knew 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. MOBILE PHONES

I never thought of this.......

This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her
mobile phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag, which
contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet, etc., was stolen. 20
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withdrawn.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minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.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, Mom, etc....

b. And 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.

*PLEASE PASS THIS ON

* I never thought about the above!

As of now, I no longer have 'home' listed on my cell phone.

Even if this does not pertain to you....Pass it on to your family and friends.

In California, you need the Pink Slip to sell a car, and you can't just reregister someone else's car in your name.

Do any of you have maximum limits on your ATM card usage? And my bank isn't some one- or two-branch company...

I'm sure that the GPS-related thefts have happened, but I also know few people who are still keeping their devices in the car, in full-view -- those devices are quick-rob targets of people wanting to pawn them. Mine is not a tiny one, and I tuck it into my tote bag when I'm going into a store or whatever on a trip. At night, it comes into the house (or hotel) with me.

Here's what Snopes has to say about those:

Having said all that.... how can anyone not know how to get home? I can understand not knowing how to get out of a neighborhood where you've gone to visit someone, etc., but it seems to me that if you get to a major intersection within 10 miles of your house you ought to be able to find your way home. Heck, as long as I can get to Lake Tahoe, the Napa Valley, San Francisco, Fresno, Marysville, etc., I can find my way home, and I live about 25 miles from downtown Sacramento.

Another thought to others: There are usually other things in a car that contain the owner's address: maybe it's some mail, or your car inspection receipts, or maybe some printouts of a mapquest search from before you got your GPS device. And although I now keep my car registration in my purse, I know many people who still keep it in the glove compartment, esp. families where the teens drive and share the car. So people worried about a specific address on the GPS should make sure they clean out the car frequently, too.

My GPS has never had my home address logged in, home is several blocks away. As I am map/direction challenged, there are many places I could not get to/from with out it. And we did that before any of the emails went around, true or not. It's just common sense.

And for as many times as I've closed the garage door, and come home to find it wide open, it makes you wonder how that happens. Can someone just randomely go down the street pushing thier own garage remote and open your door? I have no clue, but it sure is strange how it happens. And yes, the door is down and staying down before I leave the driveway.

I've never used a stand-alone GPS device, so I can't comment one way or the other on how they work. I've never had a navigation system in a car until I got my new car last month. In addition to the navigation system, it has "Destination Assist." All I'd have to do is push a button and a live person answers (they are available 24/7). I would say the name of the company/shopping mall/restaurant, etc., or give an address if I knew it, and then the person sends the directions to my car's navigation system. The nav system would then speak out the directions to me (e.g., "at the next intersection, turn right...") So, for a lazy person like me it's great! I don't ever have to enter anything. :-)

Tami_Ohio posted, "And for as many times as I've closed the garage door, and come home to find it wide open, it makes you wonder how that happens. Can someone just randomely go down the street pushing thier own garage remote and open your door? I have no clue, but it sure is strange how it happens. And yes, the door is down and staying down before I leave the driveway."

Yes, depending on the type of garage door opener that you have, a stranger can come by and use a remote to open your door. If your opener uses "rolling codes," it's very, very, very unlikely (actually it's pretty much impossible) to ever happen because the code changes every time the door is opened or closed.