Sorry for your loss. We have two GPS units in our vehicles. On mine I clear the data often and don't have 'home' set. I think the other one does. When we are in town we remove these units from view.

Just because someone now has your home address, it does not make you an easy target. Most probably they will wipe it clean as soon as they got it so that the evidence of where it came from was destroyed.

 

ouch,..... I assume it was'nt broken into at home. Never thought about the GPS thing. Good heads up.

I hate thieves...I'd rather you walk up and kick me in the twins, than sneak around and steal form me. At least give me a fighting chance. Maybe if they show up at the house you'll be able to put a foot in their

 

Guess that is one of the advantages of living here. Put the addy in the GPS and you won't wind up at my place.

 

Sorry to hear about that. What are your security plans now in light of this ?

Same could be said for the contact list in cell phones. I routinely put in people's addys.
Hubby has a nasty habit of leaving his pharmacy bag on the front seat which has a label stating name & address. No narcodics but still.
20 years ago I use to keep my work i.d. badge on my key ring. Yeah you guessed I was also listed in the phone book. Use to looe those keys @ least once a month.
We quit keeping regs. & insurance paperwork in the glove compartment. Keep it under the spare in a zip lock bag in the hatch. Have only had one traffic stop explained were we keep it. Trooper walked me back to the hatch. Explained that we have alot of theft in my hood. He said interesting solution.

~~ pelenaka ~~

 

I wouldnt worry about it.
I love the HOME feature and use it all the time.

 

Thanks for sharing that information. Something for us to think about.

 

We're dinosaurs - we don't have a GPS. But Ernie's lesson is a good one to share with my elderly inlaws. They have GPS and I'm sure they have "home" programmed in to it.

Sorry for your troubles, Ernie!

 

I know of several of my friends have had the same issue. Locked doors mean nothing. They will kick a window without a problem if they see something in your vehicle. The best defense I have found out is to lock your doors and make your car appear empty. Opportunists are what 99% of the thieves are. They are looking for unlocked vehicles for one. If they see a purse, wallet, computer, they will consider kicking in a window.

If your door is locked and nothing can be visually seen, they won't mess with it...too much of a risk for zero reward. In fact, I have never heard of a case where someone kicked in a window when there was nothing visual.

And...it will only get worse.

 

Thanks Ernie and sorry about your loss. I've never ever considered this. My home waypoint will be deleted.

 

Maybe one should set "home" to be the local police department. :grin:

 

Having "Home" programmed in as well as a bunch of "Favorites" just doesn't make a lot of sense...As DW said "You don't know where your favorite places are??"

 

You could make home city hall or the center of your community...just an idea.

 

My GPS is between my ears.

 

Many GPS units also have a "recently found" list that remembers addresses you've entered in. You have to watch out for that too. Ours has an option to use a PIN code. When you turn the unit on you have to enter the correct 4 digit code or it won't work. We use the home and the favorites feature, but if the unit is ever stolen the thieves won't be able to see them because they won't get past the PIN code screen.

Another option is to just set "home" to a nearby intersection. Once you're there you should know the way home anyway, but it's useless to thieves.

 

Although a valid point on the GPS, most glove boxes also contain your registration and insurance info, which would also have your name, home address and maybe some other valuable info such as home phone number, DOB and SS #.

 

Sorry for your loss Ernie.

I don't have gps on anything. The one time I had access to one was a joke. We were up at 12K at Elk Camp, and a fella had his gps out showing all the features. I had him plot a route to where I'd been the day before. It showed going on a roundabout route that carried you down a meanie of a canyon wall. If I'd depended on it to get me 'home' after dark, I'd probably still be lodged into some boulders at the bottom.

If I did have a gps, and it was stolen out of the truck, and they decided they'd like to visit "Home", they'd either be indentured servants or hog chow, or maybe both (slave first, then hog chow). Hopefully, they'd 'sneak' up in a nice diesel pickup truck.... I could always use a spare.

Talking about regular home. Now if "home" was my unattended bug-out location stocked with provisions, yes, I'd be nervousome. In that case, I'd have to de-supply the BOL, and set some nifty man snares, of one ilk or another.

 

I never thought of that......
I am so sorry this happened to you, but I am grateful that you cared enough to share it with us.

 

Glad I posted. Some valuable discussion in this thread. Some points I've gleaned so far:

1. Set your GPS to a nearby location instead of "home". Getting you back to ten miles within your home area should be enough. (It's enough for me, anyway.)

2. Keep your registration and insurance info in your wallet or purse, not your glove box.

A GPS is invaluable to me since I travel so frequently. And having at least a nearby location to get home is also invaluable. I keep some of the addresses of my friends in it, but I don't have them listed in such a fashion that they could be identified easily or as a home address.

I went up and reviewed the security tape from the auto mechanic's where it was burglarized. Seems I made a SECOND major security error and had left the doors unlocked, which is what allowed the opportunistic thief access. There was a nice car right next to my beat up old truck which the guy didn't get into. He wasn't willing to smash a window. He's also a rank amateur. He didn't bring a flashlight but used the one he stole from me. It took him almost a half hour to figure out how to get the stereo out. I'm lucky in that regard. A pro would have used a prybar and destroyed the dash in the process. He didn't even cut the wires. It won't take 15 minutes to put a new stereo back in.

The thief was a young kid driving a nice new car and wearing clean, serviceable clothing. He had apparently only stopped behind the mechanic's at 2:38am on his way home from the bars in order to urinate. He then saw the two cars and decided to try the door handles. Luckily he found that this foolish old potato farmer had left the doors unlocked. He got a GPS, a radio, a maglite, and a handful of gospel CD's. He left a pair of jackets, part of my bugout kit, and a brand new pair of boots. Looks like he was just grabbing stuff he wanted to use himself.

The police say it's not probable that they'll catch him right away, but they said someone with such poor thievery skills will likely get caught in a month or so and then they'll use the videotape to get a confession out of him and rack up probably a dozen different burglary charges.

So not likely to be any further problems from this event, and I'm only out about $200 which is minimal. I can even replace all the losses by visiting one store. Easy peasy. Tuition in the school of life. I'm just passing it along so you can hopefully learn from my mistakes which earns us all more value for that tuition.

 

We don't use gps, but have seen it be very useful for friends in certain occupations. DD and SIL do use one, however. Many thanks for the lesson!

Sorry this happened to you guys, Ernie . Glad the latest information looks like you probably don't have an opsec problem (unless your amateur thief decides to sell the gps).

 

HAHAHA Don't you just love that he got your gospel CD's? Maybe they'll teach him a thing or 2.
Yup, I'd say pretty cheap tuition considering...
Thank you for posting for the rest of us to learn from it too.

 

Like Wyld Thang posted - my GPS is in my head.. I have an older one, that I use for determining elevation only, or if I need an exact Lat/ Long position fix.

How did folks manage with just a map and compass, before they sold GPS items??

My vehicle registrations, drivers license, and other items all have my PO Box on them as my address, so no worry about unwanted visits from a thief.

When I had caught at gunpoint and red-handed in the act, the burglar/ thief that had broken into my locked 4X4 vehicle that was parked in a building at the old place. He broke out a window, ripped apart my dash/ and plastic interior door panel trying to get the stereo/ speakers out, and it was less damage caused than was covered by my deductable on my vehicle insurance at the time. He was arrested by the Sheriff's Deputy. Yet no charges were brought by the County DA's Office, since he was considered "5150" (Looney Tunes). But not crazy enough, to not follow my instructions while holding him at gunpoint.

Even up here on the hilltop, I always lock the doors of my house and vehicles when I am not right there.
Of course - locks only keep honest people honest..

 

Thanks for the heads up, I'll have to pass it along to Mom and Pop who want to get a GPS. They keep threatening to buy me one but I tell them the first time it says "recalculating" with that snotty attitude it'll go out the window.

Sorry about your losses. Thieves suck.

As for the registration giving the name and address of the owner, I waited to renew my tags because of a new law which prohibits the BMV from putting your personal info on the copy you keep in the car. Since Aug 9, 2010 Ohio has been giving auto owners 2 copies of the registration. The one with your name and addy stays home, the other goes in your vehicle. A lot of insurance companies no longer put your phone or address on your insurance card. Makes it safer for people who do leave that info in the vehicle as required by state law.

 

Guess that is one of the advantages of living here. Put the addy in the GPS and you won't wind up at my place.

Same here, it stops several houses away from us. We don't have a GPS, so I don't have to worry about mine getting stolen.

 

Like Wyld Thang posted - my GPS is in my head.. I have an older one, that I use for determining elevation only, or if I need an exact Lat/ Long position fix.

How did folks manage with just a map and compass, before they sold GPS items??

My vehicle registrations, drivers license, and other items all have my PO Box on them as my address, so no worry about unwanted visits from a thief.

When I had caught at gunpoint and red-handed in the act, the burglar/ thief that had broken into my locked 4X4 vehicle that was parked in a building at the old place. He broke out a window, ripped apart my dash/ and plastic interior door panel trying to get the stereo/ speakers out, and it was less damage caused than was covered by my deductable on my vehicle insurance at the time. He was arrested by the Sheriff's Deputy. Yet no charges were brought by the County DA's Office, since he was considered "5150" (Looney Tunes). But not crazy enough, to not follow my instructions while holding him at gunpoint.

Even up here on the hilltop, I always lock the doors of my house and vehicles when I am not right there.
Of course - locks only keep honest people honest..

we have bigger hypocampus-es

and hippocampus-es will grow with use

or, use it or lose it

 

we have bigger hypocampus-es

and hippocampus-es will grow with use

or, use it or lose it

Yeah right. In the past 2 years I've logged over 100,000 miles from coast to coast in my truck traveling routes I've never been before. If I decide to use a GPS for the convenience then that's my business, not yours, and your attitude is for the birds. Really? You're going to pretend you're smarter than someone else because you don't need a GPS? What's next? You're going to brag about how tough you are because you don't use potholders in your kitchen?

It's like you saw a carpenter using a hammer and you foolishly stated "Ha! What a wimp! I use my head to drive in nails!"