It's not your fault for leaving your property in your car. Wild to say that.

Lived in the Bay Area for over two decades. Yeah, leaving a visible item in your car is just bait for the smash-and-grab crowd.

It sucks but once you know it, it would be like thinking you can just leave your wallet sitting on a counter.

not "fault" in the sense of legal or ethical blame, but "fault" in the sense of stupid vs. smart thing to do

Outside of some bad areas of some cities, in New England leaving property in cars is perfectly normal.

I imagine they see it the way I do: the SF Bay Area has thieves like this because it's part of local native culture. You get the good with the bad. Sort of like going to the elephant graveyard and being eaten by hyena pack. Sure, it's not your fault for walking around graveyard and getting eaten by hyena. But this is where hyena is. I have lost (and sometimes recovered) many items to these hyena. Ultimately, they are not people or anything. They're like hyena. You don't say it is fault of hyena. It is animal and local culture is animal lover. Why stress about it? Like many, GP decided that he leave hyena here and go elsewhere where it is people and not animal.