Burglars do their things, mostly when you are not home. They case your home, waiting for you to leave, then they'll jiggle a doorknob or use a crowbar or their foot to open a front or back door. Otherwise, if they intend on burglarizing you when you are home, that might be considered a home invasion, which has a heavier sentence that often involves weapons, violence and can result in the now home invader being shot (or, in an even braver act, hogtied by the owner). So, over the years, burglars would use tried-and-true, old-school surveillance methods and technology to determine if you were home or not.
- They'd seek out inactivity, such as no movement, lights on/off, etc.
- They'd look for no car in the driveway.
- They'd check your mailbox or front stairs for newspapers piled up or mail not retrieved.
- They'd determine your routine, such as when you leave in the morning to go to work, drop off the kids or do your shopping, and when you'd be back.
- They'd look up your name on the mailbox and your phone number in the White Pages, then make calls and see if anybody answered.
- They'd hope for messages on answering machines or voicemails explicitly saying "We're not home" for whatever reason.
- They'd connect with you on social media and seek out status updates and strike when you'd say, "Going to the movies with my honey"-and they'd know it would be at least a few hours before you came home.
And now they attach GPS to your car.
The Kansas City Star reports a woman who owns a jewelry business said that after a burglary, GPS tracking devices were discovered on her vehicle and on one owned by her son. The burglar is accused of stealing more than $100,000 in jewelry, purses, wallets, luggage, coins and fur coats from the woman, although she said her loss is closer to $300,000.
In this particular situation, there's not much you can do other than sweep your car for a GPS transmitter whenever and wherever you are. But that's kind of paranoid and nutty. In the least, install a home security system that's monitored by your alarm company, which calls the police if anything is amiss.
