Pinehurst Seattle

From the Seattle Police Department:

• When you exit or enter your parked vehicle, take a moment to look around the area.
• Turn off and lock your car whenever you have to walk away from it.  This includes at gas pumps, ATM machines, etc.  Never leave your car idling.
• Before leaving your parked car, always remove the keys, roll up the windows and lock the car.
• Leave No Valuables in Your Car.  Never leave valuables in your car.  Items of little or no value to you still look inviting to a thief.  Even pocket change is enough of an enticement for some thieves.
• If you must leave valuables in your car (say you’re out shopping and still have some stops to make), make sure that nothing of value is within plain view.  Place items in your car trunk out of sight.  Do this when you get to your car, rather than waiting until you park at your next stop.  Often, people will arrive at their destination and then put items in the trunk.  They’ve just shown anyone who may be around that they just put valuables in the trunk and then walked away from their vehicles.  So, if you are going to put something in your trunk, place it in before you get to your destination so you don’t show everyone that you’ve just put valuables in your trunk.
• Don’t leave accessories visible in your car.  You may have taken the Laptop or IPod in with you, but if you leave the USB cables for your laptop or earbuds for the IPod in the back seat, the offender may think those items are in the car and break in anyway.
• Think about how the GPS is mounted in your car.  If the mounting for the GPS is visible, the thief may think the GPS is in the glove box or under the seat and may break in to try to get it.  Have removable mounting for the GPS and put that out of sight as well.
• If possible, store your car in a closed and locked garage. Make a habit of locking your garage door and car doors.
• If your car is stored in a carport or parked near your house, leave your exterior lights on throughout the night.
• If you park on the street, choose a well-lit, open space even if it means adding additional street/yard lighting & trimming back trees/bushes that block your view of your vehicle.
• If you park in a paid lot, use lots that have attendants.
• Consider replacing the light fixture closest to your car with a motion detector unit. Motion detectors are a good psychological deterrents since the normal assumption of a person seeing a light come on is that someone has seen them.  Additionally, the light makes the prowler or thief more visible.
• You may want to consider an alarm system for the car.  An alarm will not prevent anyone from gaining entry or damaging the car, but the noise of the alarm will draw attention to the car and therefore to the thief.  Additionally, many alarm systems have a blinking red light mounted on the dash.  That visible indicator may be a deterrent to would be thieves.