There is an ongoing epidemic of small rear corner windows on Teslas being broken into so thieves can check in the trunk area for backpacks and luggage.
We had a big thread on that that eventually got locked due to complaints about some content in that thread being inappropriate.
I am going to attempt to summarize the situation for anyone new to this who is wondering why someone broke their Tesla window, and/or what they can do to prevent it.
The situation:
Along with the occasional opportunist (usually if they see something valuable on the seat), there are known gangs who have made Tesla window smashing a part of their regular daily routine. They drive all around the SF bay area smashing window after window so they can pop down the rear seat-backs to check in the trunk space. In most cases there was nothing to steal, but they broken the window anyways just to check.
In many cases, the police are aware of this, but they hesitate to go after these individuals because our California laws have become so forgiving on these types of crimes. Part of the reason laws were modified to make this harder to prosecute and resultant minimal possible jail time is that bills had been introduced to reduce crowding in prisons. Among the recent law changes that have apparently emboldened criminals to become more brash is a law that says you must prove that the car was locked to charge someone with breaking in. Even if they smash a window, they can say it wasn't a crime because they claim the car was unlocked. Also, if they didn't actually take anything when spotted, they can say that they didn't intend to take anything, and that also seems to work as a defense. Even if they get caught in the act of taking something out of a locked car, items under $950 in value make it a misdemeanor burglary and the maximum jail time they could receive is 1 year.
Many of these thieves are looking for laptops. They know many tech workers in the bay area are bringing their company laptops home with them every night, particularly in the Silicon Valley (San Jose/Santa Clara/Sunnyvale/Mountain View/Palo Alto) areas. They intentionally target shopping malls with restaurants, and movie theaters to increase their chances of finding a laptop in the trunk of their target cars. International organized crime rings have been charged with buying bulk laptops from these gang members, and then shipping them overseas to be parted out.
Some members of these gangs have been creating videos bragging about their success in this criminal enterprise. They openly admit to breaking into Teslas and making lots of money "finding" laptops. They show off their glass breaking tools and talk about how nobody is safe from this.
Another group they target is tourists in popular tourist locations. Those tourists may have travel cash, cameras, and jewelry in their cars as they visit popular photo spots, particularly in San Francisco.
What can you do to help protect yourself? :
First off, avoid having anything of value you in your car whenever possible. That may not prevent a break-in, but at least you wouldn't lose something besides the window, and the less successful the thieves are at this, the more likely they would be to stop doing it.
Secondly, if you are willing to leave your rear seat backs down to show an empty trunk area it may prevent someone from breaking in.
Thirdly, if you must have the seat-backs up, consider a device like the "DropLock" that makes it very hard for someone to reach through a broken window to lower your rear seat backs. It may not prevent a window smash, but if you did have something of value in the trunk it may stop them from getting to it. They may also notice that the seats are locked and move on.
Forth, consider having a TeslaCam flash drive in the car, and the Tesla Sentry mode turned on. The alarm may scare away some potential thieves, and the sentry cam videos may help law enforcement have a better idea of who is doing this. Even if the break-in isn't enough to go after someone, they may find other reasons to arrest them once they realize who is doing this repeatedly.
Fifth, if possible avoid parking in the areas known to be "hot spots" for these types of break-ins. Avoiding popular tourist spots, restaurants and movie theater parking lots is an annoyance for sure, but being selective about where you park can make a difference. This isn't just a problem when parking in "bad" areas at night, but this is happening in broad daylight in busy upscale areas.
What else can you do? :
Do file police reports if you have a window smashed. Provide the police with any sentry cam videos you captured. Don't expect the police to actively respond and track this person down, but your data helps them built a better picture of the overall problem, and they can respond eventually when they see a pattern that could result in catching chronic repeat offenders.
Consider voting and telling your colleagues to vote for bills that would make it easier to prove that window smashing is a crime, and stiffen penalties for this sort of activity.
Note, many people had uploaded their SentryCam videos showing their windows being broken. I am avoiding putting those in this thread because they were getting people too upset in the other threads, and causing people to suggest vigilante justice which we don't want to encourage.
We had a big thread on that that eventually got locked due to complaints about some content in that thread being inappropriate.
I am going to attempt to summarize the situation for anyone new to this who is wondering why someone broke their Tesla window, and/or what they can do to prevent it.
The situation:
Along with the occasional opportunist (usually if they see something valuable on the seat), there are known gangs who have made Tesla window smashing a part of their regular daily routine. They drive all around the SF bay area smashing window after window so they can pop down the rear seat-backs to check in the trunk space. In most cases there was nothing to steal, but they broken the window anyways just to check.
In many cases, the police are aware of this, but they hesitate to go after these individuals because our California laws have become so forgiving on these types of crimes. Part of the reason laws were modified to make this harder to prosecute and resultant minimal possible jail time is that bills had been introduced to reduce crowding in prisons. Among the recent law changes that have apparently emboldened criminals to become more brash is a law that says you must prove that the car was locked to charge someone with breaking in. Even if they smash a window, they can say it wasn't a crime because they claim the car was unlocked. Also, if they didn't actually take anything when spotted, they can say that they didn't intend to take anything, and that also seems to work as a defense. Even if they get caught in the act of taking something out of a locked car, items under $950 in value make it a misdemeanor burglary and the maximum jail time they could receive is 1 year.
Many of these thieves are looking for laptops. They know many tech workers in the bay area are bringing their company laptops home with them every night, particularly in the Silicon Valley (San Jose/Santa Clara/Sunnyvale/Mountain View/Palo Alto) areas. They intentionally target shopping malls with restaurants, and movie theaters to increase their chances of finding a laptop in the trunk of their target cars. International organized crime rings have been charged with buying bulk laptops from these gang members, and then shipping them overseas to be parted out.
Some members of these gangs have been creating videos bragging about their success in this criminal enterprise. They openly admit to breaking into Teslas and making lots of money "finding" laptops. They show off their glass breaking tools and talk about how nobody is safe from this.
Another group they target is tourists in popular tourist locations. Those tourists may have travel cash, cameras, and jewelry in their cars as they visit popular photo spots, particularly in San Francisco.
What can you do to help protect yourself? :
First off, avoid having anything of value you in your car whenever possible. That may not prevent a break-in, but at least you wouldn't lose something besides the window, and the less successful the thieves are at this, the more likely they would be to stop doing it.
Secondly, if you are willing to leave your rear seat backs down to show an empty trunk area it may prevent someone from breaking in.
Thirdly, if you must have the seat-backs up, consider a device like the "DropLock" that makes it very hard for someone to reach through a broken window to lower your rear seat backs. It may not prevent a window smash, but if you did have something of value in the trunk it may stop them from getting to it. They may also notice that the seats are locked and move on.
Forth, consider having a TeslaCam flash drive in the car, and the Tesla Sentry mode turned on. The alarm may scare away some potential thieves, and the sentry cam videos may help law enforcement have a better idea of who is doing this. Even if the break-in isn't enough to go after someone, they may find other reasons to arrest them once they realize who is doing this repeatedly.
Fifth, if possible avoid parking in the areas known to be "hot spots" for these types of break-ins. Avoiding popular tourist spots, restaurants and movie theater parking lots is an annoyance for sure, but being selective about where you park can make a difference. This isn't just a problem when parking in "bad" areas at night, but this is happening in broad daylight in busy upscale areas.
What else can you do? :
Do file police reports if you have a window smashed. Provide the police with any sentry cam videos you captured. Don't expect the police to actively respond and track this person down, but your data helps them built a better picture of the overall problem, and they can respond eventually when they see a pattern that could result in catching chronic repeat offenders.
Consider voting and telling your colleagues to vote for bills that would make it easier to prove that window smashing is a crime, and stiffen penalties for this sort of activity.
Note, many people had uploaded their SentryCam videos showing their windows being broken. I am avoiding putting those in this thread because they were getting people too upset in the other threads, and causing people to suggest vigilante justice which we don't want to encourage.
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