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In this day and age, having a manual transmission is an effective anti-theft device because no one knows how to drive stick.
Our neighborhood social media page semi-regularly features video of people checking door handles at night or the occasional actual ransacking of gloveboxes and theft of sunglasses, etc. I try really hard to be extra-vigilant, especially since my garage door opener is on the sun visor in the Mazda5.
But despite this, I still seem to come out to an unlocked car in the morning now and then, and there have been occasions where the sliding door facing away from the front door was left completely open all night. Sometimes it’s just chaos getting the kids in the door at the end of the day and we miss things.
I had a couple instances of leaving the garage door open all night, but quickly solved that with a smart opener and a scheduled close at 9pm. It’s saved me a few times.
Ah parental life….I have a lot of great security camera footage of my keys dangling in our front door, left begging someone to come in or take my Subaru all because my hands were full dadding….
That said, don’t call 911 for a missing vehicle. Not urgent. Don’t waste their time. Call the non-emergency police dispatch line. In fact, save it on your phone.
Dude. Kill switch. Especially in LA! I put one in my old XJ that would interrupt the fuel pump ground. I had the switch mounted to the side of the e brake inside the center console. If you knew where it was it was easy to get too. If you didn’t, you were never gonna find that thing.
Wait until you leave your cell phone on the roof of your car.
Twice.
Welcome to the world of the Senior Moment! Now that you have a kid they will become more frequent. Learned researchers claim that this is a coping mechanism.
Soon after you will walk into a room, and forget why you came in there.
Many, many years ago we were on a family trip to Washington, D.C. and ended up at Arlington National Cemetery. Dad was driving his Suburban; inside were Mom, me, and my bonus grandparents (long story). After what seemed like hours touring the cemetery, we headed back to the parking lot, and were horrified to see the driver’s door of the Suburban was wide open. We did a quick inventory of what was inside…and amazingly, everything was still there! Apparently, Dad had left the door open when he went to help Bonus Grandma retrieve her camera from a bag stashed in the back. We decided that the tint on the rear windows was dark enough that anyone walking by assumed people were still inside.
> So when I didn’t see my truck where I normally park, it didn’t occur to me there there could even be an alternative parking location that looked the same; I knew for a fact that I hard parked right there next to that tree. It just so happens that the block over looks exactly the same, with the same tree.
Welcome to the SoCal suburbs.
You think stuff gets stolen ALL THE TIME until you leave your keys in your front door all night or leave your car window or hatch open all night parked out on the street and in those instances nothing gets touched. Also in those instances it also seems to rain so you end up with a wet interior.
I once accidentally left the passenger door to my truck open all night in my driveway and nothing was stolen. The driver’s door faces the house, and I guess the dome lights went off after a few minutes, so I didn’t even see it until I went out the next morning. You guessed it, it had rained that night D: Thank goodness for cheap plastic truck interiors!
We’ve also left the house doors unlocked and open (with unlocked storm doors) all day or all night long in the past while we weren’t at home, this is a pretty boring neighborhood thankfully.
Even leaving my sunroof in the tilted position gets me freaked out. I always imagine some person walking by and tossing a cigarette through the slit lol. I only think this because I went into a convenience store once and left the top to my Cabby down. When I came out I noticed some kids watching me and mumbling laughing with each other. I started up the car, backed out and drove away not thinking twice about them. A minute or so later down the road I noticed a cig butt on the passenger seat kind of down where the back and base come together, I think one of them flicked it from a distance and it landed in the car. Thankfully it was unlit and didn’t leave a burn hole.
My wife’s grandmother beats everyone. She kept driving until she was 90, and towards the end of her driving career she went out to meet a friend for dinner and returned home without incident. She spent the last 20+ years of her life living with her daughter (my MiL) and her daughter’s husband, and the following morning as he was setting out for his morning jog he discovered her Lexus idling peacefully in the driveway. She’d inadvertently left it running all night long in their suburban Bay Area driveway, and there it remained ten hours later, completely unmolested. Personally, I was impressed that it hadn’t run out of gas.
Someone once told me an idling car uses a half gallon an hour of gas. I think this was in reference to a V6 Malibu in the mid 00s but I’ve always used that as my general standard.
i don’t know if this beats it or not—I left the door open in my car over night once, but it was in my garage. Luckily, the interior light times out so the battery was fine. I had left it open about an inch as I was going in and out cleaning and forgot to go back around to shut it.
I did that once on my driveway with a Honda Fit and the door wide open all night. No problems.
As a fellow overtired parent, please please please take a day off and just sleep, relax and do whatever you can to take it easy.