If you are someone who owns a car, you are probably like most people: you keep your vehicle registration in the glove box of your car. That’s usually where most people keep this information just in case you may be pulled over by cops and have to verify vehicle information.
As of recently, however, law enforcement is not urging drivers to do the complete opposite and remove their registration from the glove compartment.
Atlanta police warn the general public that they noticed a trend of thieves stealing garage door openers from cars to later commit home burglaries. In general, criminals are looking through cars for cash, electronics, or even guns.
But police say you should never leave anything in your car that could cause an extra headache if it were stolen.
“We encourage everyone to please remove all valuables and important paperwork (not only about your car or finances, but also containing your personal information) from their vehicles,” said Officer L. Sajdak of the Atlanta Police Department.
Your glove compartment might seem like a convenient place to store important documents, but you should never leave anything with personal information like your home address there.
“It’s just too easy for thieves to take your ID and use it to make phony credit cards, loan applications—you name it,” Frank Scafidi, a spokesman for the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
As far as the car registration goes, the National Insurance Crime Bureau suggests taking a picture of it on your cell phone or keeping a photocopy in your wallet.
Americans all over the country have been commenting on this strange case:
“Some states, like Florida, require that you keep the original registration in your vehicle,” one person said. “There’s probably a lot more in the glove box that has the address: insurance card, warranty records, purchase/financing documents, etc.”
“If they can’t or don’t want to drive off with the victim’s car, they can just get away with the victims’ garage door opener after noting the victim’s address.”
“Why would thieves go to the trouble of looking for your home address on your vehicle registration when it is much easier to tell the GPS or vehicle navigation system to go ‘home?’” another added. “If they can’t or don’t want to drive off with the victim’s car, they can just get away with the victims’ garage door opener after noting the victim’s address.”
