Thanks for sharing! I made sure to tell my wife about this one. It’s too easy to be complacent at places we frequent.
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I’ve said this before on this forum: do an internet search to see if the operation of the remote fob for your vehicle is user programable.
For example, both of my vehicles came from the factory programmed to unlock all doors and the trunk with one push of the “unlock” button. I have reprogrammed both of them such that the first push of the “unlock” button only unlocks the driver’s door. It takes a second push to unlock the rest of the doors and the trunk. Both of mine also have an additional button to unlock/open the trunk. I have programmed both such that only the trunk is unlocked when that button is pressed - i.e. the passenger compartment remains locked until the “unlock” button is pressed, and only unlocks everything if pressed twice even with the trunk open.
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Good idea. We have all Toyotas and that is the default on them. Where she didn’t follow OPSEC was after she unlocked all the doors to put her stuff inside, she didn’t relock or at least keep looking back at the car.
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Costco turned me away for open carry. Interestingly, that was after going in open carry about a half dozen times.
Fortunately for me, shortly after that my wife and I received our CPLs.
Since they think “gun free zones” stop crime, why not just make murder illegal?
We’ve been locking our doors at gas stations. Even when unloading groceries at home, the only door unlocked is the back door of the van. All others are closed and locked. No change in the ashtray, nothing of value left inside overnight. Prior to this, we’d had my wife’s car windows broken out so someone could steal a $5 cassette deck radio and a bag of paper towels.
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Decades ago when the wife and I were dating, someone smashed the window out on her little Ford Fiesta to steal her AM radio.
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This very thing happened to a friend who borrowed my car to go shopping. Fortunately the key fob was not in the car so the bad guy couldn’t put in drive and bailed. This was in SW Michigan Meijers store.
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Nope, she was actually more sad about losing the cute little purse that our young daughter took the effort to find on Etsy, buy it, have it shipped and all of that, then losing the cash. The credit card company declined the charges, and the debits weren’t used as we have them set for pin only required
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Back in the UK, the car insurance companies will not pay out if a theft occurs from an unlocked car. It is quite common for thieves to target unlocked cars whilst the owner is distracted (pumping gas or filling the boot). As a result, I always lock the car when filling gas, or move away from it, even if it’s only to take the trolley away.
Hindsight is wonderful, but it’s good practice to hope for the best, but prefer for the worst (I was a Scout too, so always ‘Be Prepared’).
Whilst this incident is terrible, it could’ve been much worse. Certainly a good training opportunity for everybody.
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I find it ironic that Costco is trying to be gun-free, but they sell firearm safes, ammo cans, long gun carry cases for hunting. A bit contradictory.
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You’re right! Good observation!
Also, to think about it, I’ve seen in season, camo hunting clothes.
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My best friend is a former LEO. When he changed careers, he sold the glock26 he carried off duty. He went a couple years without carrying. Then the first week of the lockdown, he was shopping, and 2 guys set off his creep alert. They followed him to his car, and tried to get him to sell them the last two rolls of TP he bought. The guys were refusing to take no for an answer, until he bluffed, and told them he was an off duty cop. He drove straight to the gun store after those guys walked away. Stood on line for 4 hours, and called me asking for firearms recommendations.
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complacency is our biggest enemy. We can be in condition yellow, except when we are doing what is normally routine. Routine breeds complacency, complacency breeds the unexpected and the unexpected can breed undesirable consequences.
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Great point’s @Francis3 .
Don’t fall into routine. When you wake up in the morning, think quickly about your day, and where you’ll be. This always tends to help remind me of where I’ll be and what could happen. Think.
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