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New story: different bank, near Memorial Village. Not me but my 34 year old son. Different tactics, much scarier.

My son went to our old bank to get his birth certificate for a new passport. As he is leaving he hears a small rush of air and his tire goes flat.

He pulls into the Whataburger across the street and parks. He looks and has a flat tire. He says bad words and goes has breakfast.

Calls me as he is having trouble with the Suburban spare. New tires, fix a flat did nothing.

He shows me the spare removal sequence, I say lets tow it. We go back to the bank to one other item and as we are calling for a tow, two other customers are calling for tows, as their tires were slashed by someone in the parking lot.

Apparently the new tactic is to disable your car just enough for you to get always and break down. Where they follow and rob you. Much more dangerous. Stay alert.

The Annoyed Man wrote:

baldeagle wrote:To combat this sort of thing I have the Home on my GPS set to the local PD station, and I've drilled it in to my wife, if you even think you are being followed, drive straight to the police station.

I hadn't thought of that, although I haven't used my actual GPS for a couple of years at least..... I use the GPS app in my phone, and I don't leave my phone in my car. If they steal my GPS, it's because they're already in my house. But it might be useful to set "home" in the app in both my wife's and my phones to the local cop shop address.

But the part that really bothers me is that philip964 drives a "27 year old beat up car" (besides the fact that is just sad ). I myself drive a 12 year old car that is losing its luster. The paint is not as deep and rich as it used to be. The clear-coat on the door trim on one side is starting ti bubble up. The word "Pathfinder" on one side of the luggage rack looks like it has been bead-blasted....and it is pretty faded on the other side. It's an old body style. It doesn't have 22" rims, etc., etc. Other than an air of general age, it is an unremarkable car......and the interior is beginning to show it too.

I've kept the car because I like it, and I intend to drive it until the doors fall off. But one of the things I had kind of counted on as a preventative to breaking and entering is that it looks so unremarkable as to not attract anyone's attention. Perhaps that is no longer the case and I need to make sure I'm not being followed from the bank? Praise God for the remote deposit banking app in my phone. I rarely ever have to go there anymore.

It's sort of part of the family now. Odometer broke 12 years ago at 289,000 miles. If I get the dents repaired, I figure the engine will finally give up. But yeah I figured I was invisible to crooks in the car.

I realized last night my next stop after the bank was a trip through the McDonald's drive thru for Iced Tea. They apparently patiently waited through that stop too.

According to the awesome Houston Police Officer, who handled my "jugging" there are 300 BMV's every day in Houston. Today was my turn.

Jugging is waiting in a bank parking lot for someone to leave with an cash envelope or money bag in their hand, following them to where they stop next and either robbing them or burglarizing their car while they are inside.

I stopped to get a small amount of cash for my wife and since it wasn't for me, I got it in a small envelope (mistake). I drove almost 7 miles to my next appointment, parked right near the entrance on the first floor of a multistory parking garage and went into a large office building. When I returned after about 30 minutes four or five security guards were standing by my car (this is a bad sign). My 27 year old beat up car was parked between a new Mercedes and a new Jaguar.
The front driver's window had been broken out, the glove box was open and the hood release had been popped. Nothing was taken, there was really nothing to take except for some Novus Plastic polish on the front passenger seat. My briefcase with the cash was in the trunk. I think they were scared off by people in the garage, or they didn't want to set off the car alarm by opening the drivers door which would have unlocked the trunk. Since I was at a State Building they were going to get all the video and send it to the officer. There were three BG's two were big and obviously the muscle, they stayed in the car. The third was a tall skinny guy who broke the window and went all the way across to the glove box while still outside. All wore black Hoodies, I'll be like the newsmedia and not mention race.

The Houston Police Officer was very cool. We joked about when the fingerprint guys would arrive. I said since it was a State Building would the Texas Rangers show up, he said I could wait for them if I wanted. The men were in a car with a rear paper plate and no front plate. He said that he tells the cadets that robbers use their own car, when it has paper plates and to pay close attention to cars with paper plates. He says they can be xeroxed. He recommended that if you have video cameras get HD as they are now not much more in cost.

He didn't care one way or the other, if I was CC. Like I said awesome.