Transcript

Opens with Sergeant Steve Bills (SB) and Man on Bridge Rd, Richmond.

SB: We don't mean to embarrass you, we're just trying to make people more aware of cars being broken into and why they get broken into. So you've parked your car here?

Man: Yep

SB: Have you got the keys on you?

Man: Yep

SB: Do you realise that you don't actually need your keys because your

driver's window is half-way down?

Fade to Sergeant Steve Bills talking to camera

SB: The problem with theft from motor vehicle is it's such an opportunistic offence. It's very difficult from a police point of view to actually target the offence. The main way that we're going to reduce this offence is by getting the public involved and getting them to consider what they're leaving in their vehicles before they get out of their vehicles.

Cut to Sergeant Steve Bills and man at man's parked car

SB: Can I ask, in that centre console, what's that charger leading to?

Man: It's a GPS

SB: Can you open the door?

Man: Just don't look at the mess!

SB: (laughs)

Man: You want me to get it out?

SB: Yeah, just show them...you're not alone, that's a really common thing to do. You've taken it off the dash, or you might have had it out when you're driving, and you chuck it in there because you know that you don't want it seen. But by actually doing that...

Man: People can still see it yeah.

SB: And there's other little things, is that an ATM card sitting in the centre console...

Fade to Sergeant Steve Bills addressing camera

SB: You cannot leave your GPS device in the car - not in the glove box, not in the centre console. When you take the GPS device out you've got to take the cradle off the windscreen and you've got to get rid of the suction cup marks that are left by the cradle on your windscreen. You cannot leave your laptop in a car. There is no way that I know of that you can actually completely hide your laptop underneath your front seat, which is a common excuse that people give to us. On top of that they tell us that they cover it with something, a rug or a shirt or a jumper. That's no good either because the offender looks at that and in his mind says what are they trying to cover, what is it that's underneath that jumper? So they'll break into your car to find out. And if you're not hiding anything, you've still got to deal with $400 for a new window. You can't leave coins in the centre console, because even $10 in gold coins is sufficient encouragement for them to break in. It's an opportunistic offense - if you don't leave things in your cars, they won't get broken into, that's the message we're trying to get across to you.

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