Tip Center - About Grand Theft And Theft Prevention Tips

Grand Theft

Grand Theft or Grand Larceny (noun);
Theft of someone else's property including money that exceeds a certain value. The amount (for example $500) is determined by local jurisdiction. If the value of something stolen is below the designated amount it is considered petty (or petit) theft or larceny. The difference between grand theft and petty theft it that grand theft is punishable by state prison time where as petty theft is a misdemeanor punishable by jail time and/or a fine.

Definition of Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto (noun);
Many times motor vehicle theft is many times referred to as grand theft auto by the media and law enforcement in the United States. Grand theft auto is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle. According to the FBI's data, 794,616 vehicles were stolen during 2009, causing estimated property losses of $5.2 billion.

Grand Theft Auto Prevention

Here are some various methods of preventing grand theft auto happening to you.

• Physical devices to lock a part of the vehicle from moving or operating such as a wheel lock or brake pedal lock. One theft prevention device, for example, it the popular steering wheel lock "The Club."
• Immobilizers, also known as "kill switches." This disables the engine from running unless a hidden switch is pressed or action performed such as holding the bright lights on.
• Smart key sensors, the allows the car to be started only if the correct chip in a key is present.
• Car alarm systems that go off if forced entry is made into the car. Although audible car alarms don't always stop thieves, many will choose a car without an alarm over one equipped with an alarm. A smart addition to an audible alarm is one that had a pager device to it that alerts you if the car alarms goes off.
• Micro dot identification on individual parts so they can be traced to the owner if a stolen car is stripped for parts.
• VIN etching on the windows. This is a big deterrent because it means a thief will have to replace all the windows if they try to fake a VIN and sell the stolen car.
• Visible signs or stickers to let be known the presence of anti-theft systems. Sometimes this is good in the absence of any such devices as a deterrent.

Recovering A Stolen Car

Rates for recovering stolen vehicles vary quite a bit. The recovery rate depends of the effort the local police department into it and technology police are equipped with to assist in searching for stolen vehicles.

Law enforcement use various methods to detect grand theft auto and recovering stolen vehicles. Some methods, for example, are random checks of license plates that are in front of a patrol unit, running checks of parked cars on the street or in parking lot using plate recognition technology that alerts police if the stolen car has been reported by the owner.

There are also services to battle grand theft auto such as LoJack or OnStar so the authorities or private company can track and locate a stolen car. There is also micro dotting on individual parts of a vehicle to identify if parts have come from a stolen car.

Tips on how to avoid being a victim of grand theft

A good way to protect yourself from becoming a victim of grand theft is to be aware of your surroundings and of your belongings.

• Always research maintenance workers, handymen, repair men, plumbers, etc. Find out how long they have been in business, if there has ever been any complaints by the better business bureau and if the have had several different businesses in the past. Sometimes these workers case out houses then later come back to commit grand theft by burglarizing the homes they have worked on.
• Be sure valet is in clear sight of a business and verify that establishment does indeed have valet service before handing over your vehicle to avoid a grand theft valet scheme.
• Never give out your personal information or home address to a valet or parking attendant. There have been cases where a fake valet service sets up outside a business claiming they are running a contest or some other type of promotion and need the persons address to enter them. The criminals then proceed to commit grand theft by both stealing the car and burglarizing the person's house while they are occupied.