Metro Detroit thieves use stolen GPS units to find homes to burglarize

That reminds me. I need to program in all my gun wielding friends and local LOEs into my GPS.

It's my understanding that some GPS units have lock-out options, similar to cell phones. So each time you'd access it after a power-down, you'd be required to enter a code in order to use the device (including call-up of commonly used "Home" information). Thanks for the alert here, Mr. Higgins.

I don't have a GPS, and until my wife and I talked about it, this story made no sense whatsoever to me. I thought "thieves are going to the places you've visited and breaking into their houses?" Why would that make any more sense than just picking houses to break into?

Then my wife said they use it to break into the owner's house. Why would anyone need directions to their own house? Then I thought, "OK, if they were breaking into the owner's house, how's that different than breaking into a house without a GPS to tell them to go there?" Maybe they go after GPS owner's houses because they have more electronic toys?

Finally, my wife pointed out that if the victim had a GPS, they probably had an electric garage door opener, so the thieves can just use that to break in. We don't need one of those either. But if you put all of that together what the thieves are doing finally makes sense.

SOLUTION: Rather than put your actual address in as home, PROGRAM HOME WITH THE ADDRESS OF THE LOCAL POLICE OR SHERIFF'S STATION.

A popular question to this situation is, "Why do people need a GPS to find their way home?" Well, as a GPS owner, if you go somewhere unfamiliar, selecting "Home" on your GPS gets you to the interstate or the quickest way out of a situation in unfamiliar territory. What I would suggest is plug in the address to the corner gas station or something.

Might work except my girlfriend is the one with the GPS unit in her car. When she is at the movies with her sister I'm usually setting at home with the dog. I can't wait for someone to try this with me at home.

Why do folks leave their GPS in their cars when they leave? It is so easy to just remove them. My GPS has a code so no one else can use it anyway. When traveling and stopping at a restaurant I just remove it!

This makes no sense. Most people have registration and insurance certificates in their cars. These have their address on them -- all the thieves need is their own GPS or a MAP.

@ferdcom, but how much easier is it to have tom-tom tell them how to get home? much easier. (so i'm told) ;-)
dading!

I keep my insurance and registration in my wallet, not in my car. They are small, just stick them behind your license. If anybody steals my car, they don't have personal information. Then again, if they steal my wallet, I'm pretty well screwed.

or you can just do what I do, unplug the GPS and throw it between the seats and cover it with misc crap that seems to accumulate in the passanger seat.

I never leave my gps in my car. It's thin enough that I just stick it in my coat pocket or bag.
'Course if I ever did forget and leave it in the car and they found their way to my house, they'd have to get past my three dogs and one really, really dislikes men he doesn't know.