Made a trip to a Houston area gun range today and noticed a range officer standing in the parking lot. I later learned it’s an action they’ve taken after a rash of vehicle break in’s. Maybe I’m just behind the times (again) but it sure seems rather gutsy to break into vehicles at a rifle range. Granted, it’s a high opportunity place but it also seems like a good place to get shot.

According to one range officer with whom I spoke, a customer had purchased a new rifle and left it in his truck just long enough to go back into the store to get an item he had left on the counter. A window had been broken and the rifle stolen by the time he got back.

One tip I need share is these thugs are smart enough to break the driver window so that from a distance, it appears they’re the vehicle owner and are just entering the vehicle to get something.

Nothing new

Yep, I always break the window of my truck to gain access to my property in my truck. Never do I use any of the other 3 doors.
I will agree it's a great way/place to be shot. As I understand it, our castle doctrine laws apply to property outside the home. I'm not saying I'd shoot a man over a rifle, but I'm not saying I wouldn't either. If he's holding a rifle (who owns it is not relevant) and I approach, I may feel my life is in danger and defend myself. The story is, the rifle was pointed at me & I feared for my life.

They bust the driver window and then reach in to unlock the door when no one is looking. Takes all of about two seconds or less. That gives them more time to go through the vehicle since they appear to be the owner looking for something from that point forward.

I bought a Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat on Jan 3rd, drove it to the Dallas Safari show on Jan 7th, parked it next to the Omni Hotel at 10:15am, came out after the show at 3:15pm and it was GONE. It hasn't been recovered.

Prior to that I had the window knocked out of my Ram truck at the Dallas Gun show and they stole everything of value including 2 guns. The rocket scientist cop who came and wrote a report told me "if they would stop advertising these gun shows there wouldn't be so much theft from the parking lot". My comment to him was "if the police would patrol the parking lot there wouldn't be so much theft". He wasn't amused.

I've got to where I don't like to park a vehicle out of my sight!!!

man thats wild, I wish they would steal my POS.

Had the drivers side lock popped in on an F-150 and the console shuffled through at my apartment in Grand Prairie about 14 years ago. All they got was some change. Bad thing is, I heard an alarm but didn't investigate as they were always going off in that complex. Nothing before or since...knock on wood.

Dang! That was a sweet ride!

In addition to theft while parked…. If you like to show off at an indoor range or be seen with something nice…someone will put an apple AirPod on your car. Use that to determine where you live and wait for you to not be home to break in.

So that means, if you notice your phone can detect an AirPod, drive to the police station and have them help you out to get off your vehicle.

Fortunately I was able to find a replacement that's nicer and lower miles than the one that was stolen.

AirPods are wireless Bluetooth earbuds. AirTags are bluetooth trackers.

Can you, "Find my airpods" like you can a iphone?

Wow! Learned all sorts of stuff in this thread --especially gun show break-ins and AirPod stealth. I had my Ram rifled a few weeks back -- a very nice Sweetwater patrol corporal woke me up at 3 a.m. to let me know -- but haven't had any problems at Abilene gun shows, yet.

Big part of the reason I left Houston. It absolutely happens everywhere, but Houston is next level of crap like this. The old Gander Mountain off of 290 had 5-6 customer vehicles and 4 employee vehicles broken into IN ONE YEAR.

I don't know what it is about Dodge products, but it seems like Durangos, Chargers and Challengers get stolen more than anything else

My comment to him was "if the police would patrol the parking lot there wouldn't be so much theft". He wasn't amused.


You do realize that the parking lot you were in is private property not city/public property? There were probably signs posted. The property owner should have hired security.
Should the police really be patrolling private property while they are being paid by taxpayer dollars?

If you have an iPhone, the foreign AirTag will appear on it.



Yes, but the have to come into range of any IPhone.

Thieves and panhandlers (some probably both) are so bad at the Home Depot on DeZavala and IH10 in San Antonio that the San Antonio Police have put out a construction site type light plant with police stickers and cameras added to it that stays in the center of the front parking lot. Who knows if the cameras work or not.

One thing is certain. I'll be paying a little more attention whenever I see someone leaning into the driver door opening of a truck wherever it may be parked.

What do you plan on doing

That’s what I meant and it was pretty obvious. But thanks for clarifying.

I just LOL about the comment “patrol” the parking lot. Just fyi, there are no more “ patrolmen”. They answer calls, all day long. No patrolling anymore, just saying.

If you you want to steal nice stuff you have to go to where the nice stuff is. It is as simple as that.

My dad has a friend that's a retired cop, probably 70-75 years old. He was telling me the introduction of 911 was the end of actual police work.

Just a theory but tighter enforcement of existing gun purchase laws and far more people keeping guns in their vehicles has the thugs thinking there's never been a better chance a gun is somewhere behind every smashed window.

"These guys are looking for one thing and that’s guns," said Hicks. "We’ve had reports of laptops being left behind, iPads being left behind, wallets, even cash in the center console being left."

Link

I used to keep my rotty in the truck parked, never had a problem