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Comment by fragmede | Hacker News Reader

I'm in San Francisco, so not Seattle, but cars get broken into for the sport of it by this point. A friend's had her window broken and used, gross dog leashes and an old Nokia charger stolen. The lost hours of work to replace the window was the real cost to her dog walking business.

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Just park with your windows open if there's nothing they can really take. Repairing the window isn't with the cost or the time.

That might help in San Francisco, but in Seattle, that's lost hours dealing with a soaked interior.

Yeah this isn't for rainy or dusty environments for sure.

It may be getting soaked in SF too, but with different kind of fluids

Thanks for the f-shack

- Dirty Mike & The Boys

Problem in San Francisco is, you'll get people sleeping in your car if you do that.

Depending on the height of your windows I would think sleeping would be the best thing other people could do to your car.

I'd fear the associated smell.

Not sure why this is getting downvoted. I know at least one person who had to get rid of their car after a stinky street person crashed in it. This is a real thing that happens and once an awful stench has permeated cloth and upholstery there is no easy fix.

> * I know at least one person who had to get rid of their car after a stinky street person crashed in it.*

Obligatory reference to the Seinfeld "The Smelly Car" episode (one of the few I've actually seen). [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smelly_Car

Dirty Mike and the boys will have an f-shack in there and it will never be the same

San Diego as well; happened to me Monday. Car didn't lock all the way (older car) and they try every handle.

Thankfully they didn't wreck the car or anything. Just laid the seat back.

As clever as this idea sounds, it's not a good suggestion. I once accidentally left my windows down in SF for 12 hours and my car was essentially stripped clean - headrests, registration, proof of insurance, manual, floor mats - all gone. Additionally all my doors and trunk were wide open.

I guess I've never driven a nice enough car. I used to keep my windows down any time I parked along 8th/Harrison and fwiw nothing ever happened to my car, though there were obvious signs of folks rifling around inside. All my documents were kept in a locked glove compartment and I pretty much had nothing stealable in the car without having the car be cased.

Sounds horrible and for me it is unimaginable. In Croatia, you rarely hear that a car waa broken into even in bigger cities. In smaller towns a lot of people don't even bother to lock their cars.

Why do you think that is?

In countries like Croatia the police is busy catching criminals instead of helping them inject heroin, going after mean people on Twitter, or calculating if the robbed amount is under 900 USD and then apologising to the thief and giving him a ride home like the SF police do.

I think it has more to do with culture than police effectiveness as we are not so popular as a country with good enforcement of law. Croatia is a small country and there is always someone that knows someone even if he is on the other side of the country. So even if somebody steals something from someone, there is a big chance that it is someone you know (he knows when you leave your house, when you get back etc.), so it would be a really big shame if you find out that someone you know stole something from you. Therefore, most thefts are done by Roma people because they are somewhat excluded/isolated from society.

I suspect it might be due to demand/ability to unload hot goods. Or maybe yall got it good in Croatia and no one feels the desire to go rifling through cars?

I suspect Croatia might have better law enforcement and attorneys than SF does (look up Chesa Boudin)

Ah yes, the solution to crime in the country with the highest incarceration rate, is more incarceration!

If you google "Chesa Boudin" and hit question box marked What Did Chesa Boudin Do? It reveals thus

"Then, in November, Boudin did something no San Francisco DA had done before: He charged a police officer with homicide, for the killing of an unarmed Black man in 2017"

so maybe you're going off a little half-cocked

If you think the only logical conclusion of law enforcement is incarceration, then I feel bad for you and your country.

And risk someone shitting in your car? No thanks.

My friend visited a car breakin prone area in canada once, and left his car unlocked like his girlfriend suggested. They broke his window anyway, and stole a minecraft keychain and about $4 in change.

Hilariously he actually got the stuff back eventually

I've never had my car broken into... but most of that was a midwestern city not the coasts, although I've been in San Fran, NYC, and DC.

I have a very messy car. Not rotting food messy, just a lot of clothes and things, often a lot of workout clothes, backup winter clothes, a couple blankets.

Thieves like clean cars. See target, break in, grab, leave. Messy cars are slow, annoying, and induce too much cognitive load.

If I lived in San Fran right now, I would have a shitty car with a lot of clothing in it just for the purposes of covering up things I don't want stolen and being annoying to thieves.

I don't think that would be nearly as big of a deterrent in SF as you'd hope. It seems like nowadays any car that CAN be broken into will be.

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