Protect Your Vehicle in the Apartment Lot

Apartment Complex Life

According to FBI statistics, nearly 10% of all vehicle thefts occur in private, residential parking lots. These are the thefts you don’t usually hear about on the news because they don’t take place at the local mall at the height of shopping season, or aren’t part of some grand carjacking down on Main Street. These thefts occur usually in the dead of night, while you were sleeping in your bed and assuming that your vehicle was safely locked up and protected by any extra measures of security that your apartment complex affords.

You Are Not Alone

If you sleep at night feeling comfortable that your car is safely locked away behind security gates or in a carport surrounded by lots of other cars, you are not alone…the thieves know that you feel safe as well. A large part of the reason why auto theft is so high in residential lots is due to the false sense of security that many people get when pulling into a gated or guarded parking lots shared with their neighbors. Thieves know this sense of security and, as residents of the community or friends of residents, they can also spend a good deal of time studying the habits of the residents who feel that sense of security and leave their cars unlocked, leave valuables in the vehicle or do not take the trouble to activate their alarm systems.

Protect Your Vehicle

Remember that thieves are not all homeless people who live far far away. They live in homes and apartments just like you do and there is no reason why your complex can’t be home to one or several such auto thieves. Keep this in mind, no matter how secure you may think your apartment parking lot or complex may be and lock your doors when you park the car, activate your alarm system if you have one, and leave your personal effects hidden in the trunk or take them out of the vehicle when you leave. As annoying as it may seem, you should treat the community parking lot of your home as if it were a public parking lot at the local shopping mall.