Tips to avoid being a car break-in victim
At a recent hearing called by Supervisor Dean Preston on car break-ins, residents criticized police and elected leaders for making little progress on the issue. The number of auto burglaries has hovered at more than 20,000 a year since 2010, with the pandemic year of 2020 being the lone exception.
As a Chronicle analysis recently reported, car break-ins have risen and fallen in San Francisco’s past, but the city’s spike since 2010 has set it apart from others in California, including San Diego, Sacramento and Los Angeles. The one exception: neighboring Oakland, which has seen a rise that has tracked San Francisco’s almost exactly.
“Despite various announcements and efforts … the city has made no noticeable progress,” Preston said at the opening of the hearing.
“They’re very quick,” said resident Kathi O’Leary, who witnesses smash-and-grabs daily from her window overlooking the Alamo Square park.
Denny Garbuio, the manager of a shoe store on Haight Street, wrote a letter in advance of the hearing about the number of tourists who are “emotionally scarred” by auto burglaries.
It all points to an unfortunate truth: The fear of “getting bipped” — the slang term for a break-in — is part of life in the Bay Area. Tips and tricks to avoid break-ins have long circulated around social media, but the tools and tactics that thieves use also keep evolving.
In their guide on break-ins, KQED points out that you can do everything “right” to avoid a break-in, and still get bipped.
“It’s not ‘if’, it’s ‘when’ you’ll get your car broken into if you live in the Bay Area,” Ladan Sobhani, co-owner of Berkeley repair shop Auto Glass Express, told KQED.
Here’s a roundup of the best advice to avoid a car break-in that’s come up through the Chronicle’s coverage.
Know the risk of where you park
Our S.F. Car Break-In Tracker is an interactive map that shows in near real time the number and locations of car break-ins occurring across the city. When you click on each incident, it shows you the date, time, description of the incident and whether the case is active.
A Chronicle analysis shows that tourist destinations are overwhelmingly targeted, from San Francisco International Airport and other Bay Area airports to San Francisco’s most notable sights. If it’s one of the city’s top sightseeing spots, odds are, the risk of bipping is higher.
Avoid hot spots
Our analysis found that not only are certain areas more likely to be targeted, but there are specific street intersections that appear to be car break-in hot spots, and those may warrant avoiding altogether. You can see the full data on those intersections on our website, but they include North Point and Larkin streets near Ghirardelli Square; Francisco and Montgomery streets, which is close to the ferry to Alcatraz; and Steiner and Hayes streets, an intersection close to Alamo Square and the Painted Ladies.
Don’t leave Bluetooth devices in your car
Bay Area police in at least three cities are aware of thieves using Bluetooth technologies to snatch electronics from parked cars. Experts say any smartphone can scan for Bluetooth signals, so thieves can detect other smartphones, iPads or laptops nearby in seconds. Some even use radio scanners or specialized applications downloaded from the dark web that can unlock cars in a matter of clicks. So don’t leave your electronics in your car.
In fact, don’t leave anything in your car
Anything that appears even the slightest bit valuable in your car could be targeted, even if you’re only ducking out for a short period of time or think it’s well-hidden. Tourist officials suggest traveling light and leaving high-value possessions back in the hotel. The same advice goes for locals: Leave the valuables at home.
In August, city law enforcement officials held a news conference to tout new strategies to address auto break-ins and Police Chief Bill Scott advised not to leave anything in one’s car, even if it’s for a minute. People will leave their car for just a few minutes to see a sight and get a photo, “and they get back and they [were] 50 yards away, and their stuff is gone,” Scott said, according to KQED.
The conference was held at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts — another hot spot for break-ins — and Scott’s point was made all the more clear when a break-in occurred just around the corner from the conference. A family from Missouri told the Chronicle they were gone from their locked car for only about 15 minutes to explore, leaving four backpacks, laptops, a Kindle, jewelry and other items sitting in the rental car. They returned to their car on Baker Street to find the back window broken out and all of their belongings stolen.
Curb your tires
The anger and frustration over car break-ins expressed at the meeting called by Preston was perhaps nothing new for San Franciscans, but one tidbit that came out of the meeting may surprise some locals, and help avoid a break-in: Some say thieves are finding victims by targeting motorists who forget to curb their wheels. It fits in with the pattern of thieves targeting tourists or people from outside of San Francisco — anything that flags the car as not being local could make it more of a target.