I had my car broken into twice last month in SF's Japantown. The first time the busted two windows and stole a crappy CD/cassette deck that had someone asked for it at a stoplight, I probably would have given him. Even though they busted two windows and cracked the center console's plastic, they didn't cut the factory car harness, try to jack the car, or cut up the seats. How considerate of them, eh?

The second break-in was more annoying: they busted the passenger's side window, opened my glovebox, realized that I DIDN'T put the detachable face in the glovebox, and then took off. The shitty part was that this happened between 7-8PM (twilight) on a major 6lane street in SF (Geary) next to a pretty big shopping center.

I'm still wondering where the fuck they sell these decks? eBay?

Lessons learned:
* I take my deck's face off everywhere even if I'm just parking for a little while and the deck cost <$100. My GF's purse makes a great storage area and windows aren't that cheap.
* I always make sure that my glove box is open to say "Hey motherfucker, the face isn't in here and if I took the trouble to show you it's probably not under the seat either."
* I installed the blinky light to my Viper alarm but if you think about it this is pretty pointless. if the dude is only going to steal my stereo, he's not going to care if the alarm is blaring like hell.
* I never looked before but when I part on the street with my commuter car, I always make sure to look for piles of broken glass. Even with parking spots at a premium in SF, I'd rather pay $10 for parking vs. $100 for another window.

-g