I've had my car burgled twice for them to only steal a backpack with nothing in it. I'm pretty sure the assumption is that backpacks have laptops.

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kmoser 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

It's simpler than that: the assumption is that a bag will hold something of value, whether laptop, purse, wallet, cash, or otherwise

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red369 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I really hate this! Long ago, I had a quarterlight window smashed because someone broke into my 20 year old Toyota Corolla to steal a 4L, but half empty bottle of engine oil and a street directory. Obviously the engine oil wasn't expensive, and no-one used street directories anymore, even back then.

This was in nice suburb in New Zealand, so it was a bit of a surprise. The replacement window cost many times the value of what they took, and I was finding small pieces of glass for a while afterwards despite careful vacuuming.

Since then I'm more careful that there is nothing removable visible at all through windows. Ideally, anyone looking through the window should think I am the kind of compulsive person that carries every single thing inside each night. Unfortunately, the trick to making that work almost requires it to be true.

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teruakohatu 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

> This was in nice suburb in New Zealand, so it was a bit of a surprise.

A friend had her ancient Toyota’s back window smashed in and they stole an old dirty blanket lying on the back seat that they could have gotten for free from any number of places (clean and in better condition)

In a warm climate New Zealand suburb.

My takeaway at the time was that a subset of thieves will steal anything, with zero rational basis and no regard for consequences.

A paper bag would be just as enticing.

	▲	whstl 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		My guess, from experience: they assumed the blanket was hiding something of value underneath it. One thing I learned living in a dangerous area was that you should keep zero visible things inside your car when it's parked, otherwise someone will smash the window. :(

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shmeeed 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

>no-one used street directories anymore

I disagree! Out in the woods, a few pages ripped out of an old street directory found in the trunk once saved my ass... quite literally. Couldn't have used a smartphone or GPS for that!

>Ideally, anyone looking through the window should think I am the kind of compulsive person that carries every single thing inside each night.

When I have to park my car in a shady-looking spot, I usually open my glove box to reveal nothing but garbage inside, and a note saying "nothing to steal here". I obviously can't prove this works, but I would like to believe it does, because thieves might consider it a courtesy that saves them unnecessary hassle.