[ahmeneeroe-v2]

It's not your fault for leaving your property in your car. Wild to say that.

[poulsbohemian]

Ahem. There are neighborhoods in the US where you leave nothing in your car because otherwise your car will become a target. It's often "the rule" in these places that you also leave the doors unlocked because that way "they" won't break your window trying to get in. They open the door, see there's nothing of value to steal and move on. In other places in the US it's (still but fading) normal to leave your car doors unlocked because "everybody knows everybody and no one would steal from each other." Code switching is knowing which of the neighborhoods you are in and how to adapt.

[cptcobalt]

The point of the comment is that this is not something we should have to tolerate or worry about in a seemingly high-trust society.

[ghaff]

Outside of some bad areas of some cities, in New England leaving property in cars is perfectly normal.

[JKCalhoun]

Lived in the Bay Area for over two decades. Yeah, leaving a visible item in your car is just bait for the smash-and-grab crowd.

It sucks but once you know it, it would be like thinking you can just leave your wallet sitting on a counter.

[aikinai]

You can also do that in high-functioning societies. In Japan people leave their purses, phones, etc to hold their seat before ordering in a café, going to the bathroom, etc.

[plingamp]

For what it's worth, everything was in a locked truck with no visible way of seeing any items.

From what I heard from others, apparently the thieves have a device that allows them to detect electronics (I had two laptops, cellphone, and a few other devices). I'm not sure how accurate this is, but i'm not sure why my car was the only one on the street that was targeted as there were no visible signs of valuables in the car (nothing visible from windows etc.) Funny part is a few weeks later nothing was found except for my Kindle which a kind citizen found and returned to me. Apparently thieves don't like to read?

[jasonfarnon]

not "fault" in the sense of legal or ethical blame, but "fault" in the sense of stupid vs. smart thing to do

[thih9]

But it’s not a stupid thing to do either - if anything, normalizing crime sounds not optimal.

[elzbardico]

Fault doesn’t necessarily imply guilty. People need to understand that. “I should have known better” means while I am not guilty of what happened to me, I could have avoided it by not doing X. So, the real world is messy, and next time I will ac accordingly for my own good.

It is not smart to die or have your things subtracted just because you want to make a point of how things should be, a point that nobody will care about.

[Terr_]

I often like to highlight the difference words that we tend to smush together and treat as synonymous.

For example, something can be your responsibility but not your fault, or vice-versa. Responsibility is literally just the duty to respond.

[matwood]

I grew up in a small city in the US and was taught early on to never leave any property in view in your car. The US also has a worse issue than other parts of the world because people often leaves guns in their cars.

[SirMaster]

I grew up in a small town and we didn't even lock the doors to our home. Never had anyone come and steal anything.

[sejje]

Why does people leaving guns in cars make the stealing worse?

[sitzkrieg]

did you feel really smart putting that totally made up "because people often leaves guns in their cars" in there?

[edm0nd]

It 100% is if you live in or operate in a high crime area known for vehicle break-ins. Like OP of the comment.

[srj]

Sure but in a less broken society thieves would be apprehended and theft risk would be low. Instead the police do nothing and honest people live like a school of fish trying not to stick out for fear of the nearly-authorized property theft rampant in SF.

In many parts of the world, including major cities, it would be okay to leave your belongings in a locked car.

[renewiltord]

I imagine they see it the way I do: the SF Bay Area has thieves like this because it's part of local native culture. You get the good with the bad. Sort of like going to the elephant graveyard and being eaten by hyena pack. Sure, it's not your fault for walking around graveyard and getting eaten by hyena. But this is where hyena is. I have lost (and sometimes recovered) many items to these hyena. Ultimately, they are not people or anything. They're like hyena. You don't say it is fault of hyena. It is animal and local culture is animal lover. Why stress about it? Like many, GP decided that he leave hyena here and go elsewhere where it is people and not animal.

[trollbridge]

But the thieves actually are people, not "wildlife". And there is no reason to tolerate this kind of quality-of-life crime. Nobody is better off for it.

[viraptor]

> the SF Bay Area has thieves like this because it's part of local native culture

You mean like Coast Miwok or Pomo?