GPS ‘My Home Location’

Replacing the days of old when cars were broken into to steal car cassette/radios/CDs, GPS devices are now high on the list of items stolen from motor vehicles.

Unlike stolen car stereos, primarily stolen and sold for cash, the main purpose of thieving GPS devices from cars is for the thief to look up the owner’s home location and assuming that the device was stolen from the car at a location other than the home address, then the thief can be relatively certain that you are not at home when he/she decides to pay your home a visit.

Aside from the precaution of dismantling your GPS device when you exit the car, it is best to actually take the device with you. Thieves know from the residual marks left on the windscreen from the GPS cradle that although the device may not be visible, it may still be somewhere in the car, for example stowed in the glovebox, and if this is the case the device will still be stolen.

To further safeguard your home address, if indeed your device is stolen, DO NOT enter your correct home address details in the My Home Location. It is one of those crazy things that people enter into their devices, but one must assume both that people know where they live and if they are nearby home then the directions to get home from nearby. Therefore, to thwart would be thieves from breaking into your home:

1. Enter no home address details;

2. Enter your street name or nearby street with no house number;

3. Enter the address details of your nearest local police station; or

4. create some other diversionary address that does not in any way lead to your premises.

Another consideration regarding your GPS is whether it is covererd by insurance. It is best to list your GPS under both your Home & Contents Insurance as well as advising your motoring organisation, for example the NRMA in NSW. It may well be the case that NRMA may cover a broken car window that was broken into to steal a GPS, but not the device itself.

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