If you keep your car registration in the glove compartment — or anywhere else in the vehicle — you could open yourself up to a world of hurt.
Most drivers store their vehicle’s registration in the glove box of their vehicle. This is seen to be the most practical location for these documents because it makes it simple to get them out when police pull you over. However, for one very important reason, police are now advising people to stop leaving their registration documents at this spot.
Consider the following scenario: You leave your car in a public garage to go out for the evening. Theft is aiming for items inside automobiles, like garage door openers, while you’re out to dinner. The bad guy steals into your car, grabs the glove box, and looks through the registration to determine your address. The burglar arrives at your home by car and utilizes your garage door opener to enter quickly. Suddenly, all of your valuable possessions are gone.
This terrible situation, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, is already happening all over the country. They highly advise against storing your car registration in the glove box.
“We have reports from our law enforcement partners that car thieves have stolen the car, driven it to the residence and burglarized the home before the owner even knew the vehicle was missing,” said NICB President and CEO Joe Wehrle.
People are advised by the National Insurance Crime Bureau to take a photo of their registrations and store it on their phones or in their wallets. When pulling people over, the Atlanta Police Department declared that they will accept these images.
“We encourage everyone to please remove all valuables and important paperwork (not only about your car or finances, but also containing your personal information) from their vehicles,” said Officer L. Sajdak of the Atlanta Police Department.
Atlanta police confirmed that if you’re stopped over, an officer will take a photocopy or image of your registration if they even ask for it. Typically, they can check the data on their computer.
Additionally, you can now present electronic proof of insurance during a traffic stop in several states. In the event that your smartphone’s battery dies, you might want to have a paper copy of the card handy.
Americans from all throughout the nation have commented on this peculiar instance.
“Some states, like Florida, require that you keep the original registration in your vehicle,” one person said. “There’s probably a lot more in the glove box that has the address: insurance card, warranty records, purchase/financing documents, etc.”
“Why would thieves go to the trouble of looking for your home address on your vehicle registration when it is much easier to tell the GPS or vehicle navigation system to go ‘home?’” another added. “If they can’t or don’t want to drive off with the victim’s car, they can just get away with the victims’ garage door opener after noting the victim’s address.”
Sources: AWM, Lovethispic, 24ssports