This past Christmas Day, I was visiting my wife’s grandparents in Manhattan and didn’t think twice about parking my car and leaving my GPS unit still mounted on the dash in plain view. I have left it before on the car dash and never had any issues, but on that particular day, I got “lucky” and had my car’s passenger side window smashed in by a thief who wanted my GPS unit. The unit itself was an older Garmin 2610 StreetPilot which has since been discontinued, but it did cost me $700 back in 2002 when I bought it and gave me years of good use until this past Christmas day. Needless to say, I’ll get the unit replaced, but the cost of having my smashed window replaced and the door trim bent back into shape came close to $1,000 at the BMW dealer. This scumbag of a thief used a screwdriver in a foolish attempt to pry to window down, but ended up shattering it instead due to the stress he put on it. I immediately called the police and had them file a report of the incident. Supposedly, I was not alone in being victimized that day, as I was told by the officer that my car was the 8th to have been broken into. Some punk, which the cops believe is a junkie, was working the neighborhood and smashing cars to steal the possessions out of them and get cash at the local pawn shop. To make a long story short, I have learned my lesson well and will no longer be leaving anything in plain view, not even my EZ-Pass tag, which suprisingly the thief did not take, and my radar detector, which was in my glove compartment that the thief ransacked too. He knew what he wanted and went after it, even if it meant smashing all the windows to get it. It’s nice to know that he wasn’t able to open the door from inside because once the car is locked, it won’t open unless the key is used (Kudos to BMW on this anti-theft design) and most likely had to lean on broken shards of glass in the window frame of the door and sliced up his pathetic excuse for a carcass. The cops believe they may have video footage of this scumbag and I have indicated to them that I will prosecute if he is caught. There is a special place in hell for lowlives like him that vandalize and steal.
