Heads up to Colorado folks, there has been multiple purses stolen out of cars at many different barns on the Front Range according to Facebook. I know many people often leave their cars unlocked at the barn but might be time to leave them locked and even hide your purse.
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And this has happened a bit at some hi-end shows in my old area as well.
Thieves are catching on/ getting smarter. They’ve realized at open shows there’s so many things going on, so many strangers where nobody knows who should be there and who’s there to pick up unattended valuables.
Stay sharp everyone.
They can get them from locked vehicles too.
This has happened at shows in my area. Thieves have a device that reads the signal for your vehicle when you lock it, and then can unlock your doors.
They can just sit in the parking area and enter cars/trucks as soon as you walk away.
A$$holes.
A friend from CO moved here.
She was surprised we would get horse feed and leave it in the back of the pickup while we were running other errands.
She said in CO you got anything that was not kept protected last, like feed sacks.
If not, when you went to get something, just for a moment, your feed would not be there any more when you returned to your pickup.
This is when you use your fob? Not if you manually flip the lock on the door right. Also if you use fob to open door. Problem is if I use my key to open door the panic mode goes off, why? I’m old and I didn’t use to have to keep up with ‘everything’ in life :sigh:
Stealing is so low, so upsetting.
The barn is a safe haven for many, so upsetting that people are stealing. I’ve been locking my car for years now but I used to never do that at the barn.
There is video footage of the ladies, clear view of faces and the Dodge van (no plates.) I’ll try to figure out how to link it.
I think it can be read only if you lock it electronically with the fob, but ask someone who actually knows!
My truck has mamual locks, they tried to pry open my doors but couldn’t get in. Thankfully they’d never heard or a slim jim, or were too stupid to use one.
If they’re stealing your stuff, Lunabear, they’re not “Ladies”!
Good heads up warning for all of us…
I was never able to figure that out either. I also had difficulty getting the alarm to stop. The times I had to drive a flashing honking car…
When my trunk started opening every time I got out of the car :eek: I ditched the fob and used my spare key that doesn’t have the fob. I’ve been opening my vehicles manually all of my life so have no problem doing it the “old fashioned” way. 
We had a rash of thefts here in the PNW; several people in a rented car, even going into remote barns with locked gates to target boarders cars. Sometimes hitting several barns in an area in the same day.
One of my neighbors is a boarding barn. They leave the gate open during business hours. We are well back off the main road, the drive deadends at their gate and is only used to access theirs, mine, and another neighbors property, so not frequented by anyone without a purpose. They immediately pulled in right up to the BM’s car, took her debit card from her purse and she caught them as the guy was going back to the (rented) car. There were two others in the car - a driver and a lookout, I suppose. BM was able to deactivate the card before they could use it and I don’t know that they were ever found, since the car was rented and under a fake name.
It was clearly planned with a very specific target; our house is right up near the drive with plenty of valuable things easily snatched out of our carport and not traceable - but no cash or cards. They didn’t even stop here or attempt to look in our vehicles (yes, I was home when this occurred!).
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Was she picking up feed and then parking at night on East Colfax or what?
There are undoubtedly a few places in CO with high petty crime (e.g. parts of the Denver metro, Pueblo), but I can assure you that many Coloradoans run the occasional errand with feed in their truck beds without incident. And there are plenty of places in even the rapidly changing Front Range where people still feel safe enough not to lock things up at the barn, including their cars and wallets.
Hence why this is news-worthy.
A word to the wise: our cars often hold things that can be used to access more sensitive parts of our lives (e.g. address info, garage door openers), so consider locking your vehicle even if you’re not leaving a purse in it. Years ago my car was broken into in CA (at night, while locked). Though nothing of value was in there to be taken, the thieves created a fraud nightmare for me by stealing my registration and a voided check that had been in the glove box. It’s worth the little inconvenience of locking up while riding to prevent the big inconvenience of fraud or identity theft!
Important to read this if you leave a phone, laptop or IPad in your car also-
https://www.outsideonline.com/2406433/thieves-bluetooth-scanner-vehicle-break-in
People steal weird things, like 50# bags of dog food out of the back of an SUV. Happened to a friend. We dont buy anything we leave in the truck bed and then go inside to a sit down dinner for example.
dh is so paranoid when he takes the car to the shop he removes everything including the registration, insurance cards, and doesn’t put them back.🙄
Friends are natives from Colorado Springs.
That is what they reported.
I don’t know any more details, sorry.
Thanks for that one. Trailhead smash-and-grab is an old game, but it’s good to know that thieves can see your computer even if it’s in a closed compartment. Hopefully the jerks who do barn break-ins haven’t cottoned on to Bluetooth scanning yet! I almost always have to have a computer in the (locked) car when I’m at the barn…
No kidding on the theft of weird things. The thief who broke into my car all those years ago stole a ratty old sweat-stained baseball cap, the car owner’s manual, and a couple pool noodles I had picked up for a sensory trail project at the therapeutic riding center. A friend had her well-worn half chaps and stinky mucking boots stolen from her car trunk in a smash-and-grab (also in CA). Dog food seems incredibly useful and valuable by comparison!
Opportunity crime is not something that is particular to Colorado, like the other poster seemed to be implying. Sounds like that poster’s friend just got unlucky at some point, the way anyone with unsecured property anywhere might get unlucky in encountering a thief.
If you are alluding to my friends, they didn’t say they had any stolen, it was just the comment, when we went into a supermarket, about leaving the pickup with feed in the bed unattended.
That was something they said you didn’t do where they came from and “expect it to still be there when you return”, were their words.
That was some years ago, maybe today is different.
I didn’t reply at first because I haven’t lived in Colorado for two and a half years, and maybe things have changed. But I certainly did not experience theft problems when I lived there. I lived on five acres just outside Parker, and not only didn’t lock the house most of the time, but also left cars unlocked and keys in them. The key was also in the tractor unless we were out of town. I never had a problem there, probably because it was a long, long walk up my driveway and a trespasser would be in full view of several neighbors.
I locked my car at work (Denver Tech Center), but I never heard of any problems in that area.
I’m a lot more careful now that I live in South Carolina. My neighborhood gets a lot of people checking for unlocked cars in the middle of the night. My car is always locked these days. My neighbor left her car unlocked, and left her loaded pistol in it. Of course it was stolen.
Rebecca
This is only now happening somewhere? I have been conditioned since I was a young child to lock car doors and stow purse/wallet. I don’t leave it unlocked ANYWHERE.
Here also, the police report in the big town regularly in the news how many cars were stolen, broken into and just stolen from if just left open.
They keep begging people not to leave cars running when going into a store for a minute, or open when parked, say it is asking for trouble.
Those are crimes of opportunity they rather not have to tend to, if people would just lock their cars.
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