Here is my advice from years of mentoring juvenile offenders.

Please record all cases of kite related car break ins within this thread.

NEVER EVER EVER leave anything in your car that could remotely be seen as stealable at any kitesurfing spots. All popular kitesurfing spots are on the circle route of carparks that thieves drop by multiple times every day. If you leave a handbag on a car seat, more times than not you will loose it at a place like Woodmans Point or Leighton. Note that local cars are not safe, they dont give a crap where you live.

How to minimise the risk of a broken car window+stolen gear
- Leave your mobile phone and wallet at home, they are never safe on the beach or in your car.
- Never leave any type of bag in your car, they will smash your window to check whats inside.
- Never leave sheets, towels etc looking like they might be covering something. I know a friend who lost a digital camera wrapped up in a beanie stuffed into the corner of his car boot.
- Leave all glove boxes and consols open to show there is nothing in there. On days where car thieves have not pulled much of a loot they get desperate and will smash your window to check your glove box.
- Do not leave clothes hanging in the car, it shows your are going out somewhere afterwards or have just been out somewhere and thus you have a wallet and mobile in the car or on the beach.
- Any sign of a stereo with a face that could have been left in the car is justification for smashing your window. If you pull into the car park with your music blaring, you dont know who is listening. They know that you dont take your stereo face onto the water.
- A radar detector left in a car in any area of perth will get your window smashed.
- If you are lucky enough to drive a nice looking car, buy a crappy looking cheap car for kitesurfing trips, its not like you couldnt afford it. I nice car equates to expensive stealables inside the car.
- Do not put kitesurfing stickers on your car!!!!!! It automatically makes you a target where ever you park.

Sometimes there is almost nothing you can do...
There are places and situations where EVERY car will have its window smashed and its contents gone through. I've seen upwards of 20 successive cars with their windows smashed at some concerts, beaches, dinner parties, parking lots... with no regard to make/model or contents. Some people avoid this risk by driving a crappy car and leaving the windows down.

Fists of justice
Do not attempt to physically apprehend these guys unless you are willing to break your board on their head or you have a baseball bat or you are chuck norris, they ALL carry knives and wont hesitate to make a nice hole in you.

Edited on the 16/5/07

Leaving stuff on the beach
Leaving valuables in shoes or buried under clothes on the beach is like making a non tax-deductible donation to the scum who make a living on other peoples misery (thieves not divorce lawyers). There is also a large risk of losing your car when you leave your car keys in your kitebag on the sand, not to mention what they will do when they have your address from your wallet and your house keys attached. Carry your car key on you while kiting (in a mini dry bag if it has an immobiliser built in). Leave your house keys at home.

A lucrative business...
A good afternoon/evening of breaking into cars will net a talented young thief (who has the right connections) thousands of dollars - including selling stolen credit cards, bankcards (which can be used over the teller without pins at some banks), ids, mobiles, mp3 players, stereos, radar detectors, clothes, tools, sports gear, laptops, video and digital cameras, car rims (one kid i mentored had a $5000 set of car rims buried in his backyard), pdas... not to mention when they later visit your home with your house keys and steal your kite gear, motorcycle, plasma screen, dvd player, stereo, computer, passport... It is highly lucrative and the risk is low especially if they are under 18 as the police cant hold them for long and their record is cleared when they become an adult. The only thing that will deter them is the belief that you have nothing worth stealing

Added 25th November 06

Car theft
Most of the thieves are not there to steal cars as they cannot easily make money from it, they are mainly after non trace-able goods, cash and cards. They do however usually go from carpark to carpark up and down the coast in stolen cars so they must pick one up from somewhere, plus a favourite past sport of some thieves is thrashing the buggery out of stolen vehicles then lighting them on fire.
Disable your car mechanically if you are worried about theft (disconnect spark plugs, battery, ignition wires, fuel line valves... the less obvious the better and preferably do it from inside the car so they do not watch you doing stuff under your bonnet). Thieves are not renown for their auto-mechanic abilities. Once again, do not leave your keys on the beach with your gear.

Windows down? Doors unlocked?
I did not recommend leaving windows down and removing all valuables because I do know of a number of cases where frustrated thieves slashed up the car seats when there was nothing to steal (now that is truly a scumbag thing to do). BUT my dearest mother was one of 15 cars broken into outside a house party in Riverton, her car was the only car without a window smashed because she left it unlocked... you would have to weigh it up - risk of vandalism VS risk of smashed window.

Added 28th November 06

NOTE: Most insurance companies say that not locking the car would void their cover. This would be in relation to contents theft, vandalism AND car theft. Simple and illegal way of getting around this is to smash the window if you do lose something expensive enough or if the vandalism is bad enough.

Added 1st December 06

"If you're worried about losing your kites out of your car when at the beach, look into getting them covered as part of your home/contents insurance. My policy has nominated items (kites, board etc) which are covered, even if they're stolen off the beach. Wasn't a big hike in premium for this option. Cheers, Guy"

Added 10th March 07

Cheers for this tip Harry.

1) Take a Jim Beam or Jack Daniels bottle that is almost empty perhaps a third left ( I know this may be hard to part with for some but it is important that there is still some left for the cover up )

2) Fill the remainder with urine, cold tea mixed with laxitive powder or anything else which will cause some discomfort ( please note you could go to the extreme and mildly poison the bottle and as you did not give it to them you may have a defense)
OR alternatively
2.1) Instead of urine or laxatives add a nasty yellowish brown dye that wont come off the skin and something nasty and alcohol based like methylated spirits so they end up in hospital with a bloody painful tummy but dont die. Let the police know to put a post out for someone with their mouthed dyed the brownish colour in the hospitals and they'll be caught.

3) Leave it on the front seat or floor each time you go for a kite.

Note: You can buy screw on caps that make it look like a sealed bottle Try this packaging place on 28 Catalano way/street/rd? Canningvale during business hours.

I will add this to my main post.

Most of the thieves are not there to steal cars as they cannot easily make money from it, they are mainly after non trace-able goods, cash and cards. They do however usually go from carpark to carpark up and down the coast in stolen cars so they must pick one up from somewhere.
Disable your car mechanically if you are worried about theft (disconnect spark plugs, battery, ignition wires, fuel line valves... the less obvious the better and preferably done from inside the car so they do not watch you doing stuff under your bonnet). Thieves are not renown for their auto-mechanic abilities.

I did not recommend leaving windows down and removing all valuables because I do know of a number of cases where frustrated thieves slashed up the car seats when there was nothing to steal (now that is truly a scumbag thing to do).

Fists of justice
Do not attempt to physically apprehend these guys unless you are willing to break your board on their head or you have a baseball bat or you are chuck norris, they ALL carry knives and wont hesitate to make a nice hole in you.


Are you kidding me?, I would gladly smash a new board over the head of a filthy vermin ripping off stuff from my car, I'd be happy to break a baseball bat the same way.

A grand for a board broken across a vile little sh1ts head would be so worth it.

Karma will see that they die of some slow unbearably painful disease that is uncurable, like the flame from a blowtorch [}:)]

Now I'm angry again

Good winds,

wow, u live in a street

I have a 20 year old laser, that looks crap.
One door cannot be opened without can opener.

As you peer thro a window there is rubbish, ****, sand, dog hair, old fruit cores, and crap strewn from one end to another.
It smells of.....well i dont know what that smell is... its a new smell and noxious.

Anyone who looks in would think, nope hes got fk all....and they are probably right.

man this sucks... i dont suppose an alarm would deter them? ive got 2 kites one 07 cahbrina xbow2 ... its like 2800 kite and then my 06 ocean rodea about 1500 worth .. thanks for the heads up looks like i wont bring both kites to the beach with me when i get back to perth... sucks though .. **** im in christchurch atm and we leave spare kites, wallets, keys, phones just sitting in our bags in the launch area ... ive never heard of anything being stolen .. i guess the benefit is there is always someone around. do u leave ur kitebag and pump on the beach or do u need to lock that in the car to?

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Originally posted by havox

man this sucks... i dont suppose an alarm would deter them? ive got 2 kites one 07 cahbrina xbow2 ... its like 2800 kite and then my 06 ocean rodea about 1500 worth .. thanks for the heads up looks like i wont bring both kites to the beach with me when i get back to perth... sucks though .. **** im in christchurch atm and we leave spare kites, wallets, keys, phones just sitting in our bags in the launch area ... ive never heard of anything being stolen .. i guess the benefit is there is always someone around. do u leave ur kitebag and pump on the beach or do u need to lock that in the car to?

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Yea same at our beach, there's usually enough of our crew there that somebody is on the beach to keep an eye out for theives.
If you're worried about losing your kites out of your car when at the beach, look into getting them covered as part of your home/contents insurance. My policy has nominated items (kites, board etc) which are covered, even if they're stolen off the beach. Wasn't a big hike in premium for this option.
Cheers
Guy

We watched a guy casing and breaking cars at Brighton/Scarborough once. I got on the phone to the police but they got there too late. I wrote down his number plate and car description right in front of him! However, this only made him move to the upper car park! They are kn cheeky. I had my mothers car broken into in NZ while out kiting and lost $2000 worth of stuff The local kiters there at Raglan leave there cars open, so that theory worked for them. Makes me want to kick there arse when I see them

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Originally posted by Jesse19

one of my dads m8s drives a crappy old ute that he lugs his big american bulldog around in and he rocks up at places and leaves his keys in the ignitio and windows down and he neva gets his car broken into . summ ppl are just lucky i guess?

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nup. theifs dont knock off stuff that smells of dog sh!t.

just get dropped off

from another thread - info for those in WA.
NB South Beach is just south of Fremantle & Coogee is overlooking Woodies.

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Originally posted by puppetonastring

Almost caught 3 of the fkrers last week. Wasnt gonna touch them but I was having wet dreams about driving backwards & forwards over their bike ... accidentally.
Be on the look out for 3 extremely well tanned (al a naturale) young guys cruising the carparks on small motor-bikes. Watch your stuff & warn everyone if you see them - apparently they are regulars . They usually have a couple of adults in a car somewhere about, but away from each break-in, to collect all the stash.
These guys are real low-life hoods........ they knew I, along with 2 security cars, were onto them (tracking them as best we could) and still they smashed their way into another 2 cars in South Beach carpark when we headed off the other way.
This was the exact same carpark I called the cops from but who must have been too busy to show up - probably all busy on speed camera duty.
At least 5 cars smashed into in the sth freo/coogee area that one day. Then they just ride off along the train line reserve back to Spearwood somewhere. Cops cant follow them even if they try.

In fairness to the cops the security guy told me they dont respond because its a waste of time. Even if they take the time to get them to court & they are just lectured & sent home - laughing all the way no doubt. And why not

And if your unlucky have a good long search around in the dunes. Anything they cant carry easily on their bikes they stash & come back to collect it later.

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This is dead right,South Beach, CY Oconner Beach, Coogee and Woodmans point are all hot spots. My girlfriend and I got a couple of phones and a handbag (hers) stolen. Witness's saw two young fellas on a small motor bike going down the road just chucking the contents of the bag in the bushes as they went.
We reported it on the police 1300 number, they took the details but didn't seem too interested. The next day we rang the Fremantle police station. They were really appreciative of the call as they don't get told about the break in unless they actually go looking for them on the database. So make sure that you report the incidents to the local cop shop.

quote:
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Originally posted by puppetonastring

Almost caught 3 of the fkrers last week. Wasnt gonna touch them but I was having wet dreams about driving backwards & forwards over their bike ... accidentally.
Be on the look out for 3 extremely well tanned (al a naturale) young guys cruising the carparks on small motor-bikes. Watch your stuff & warn everyone if you see them - apparently they are regulars . They usually have a couple of adults in a car somewhere about, but away from each break-in, to collect all the stash.
These guys are real low-life hoods........ they knew I, along with 2 security cars, were onto them (tracking them as best we could) and still they smashed their way into another 2 cars in South Beach carpark when we headed off the other way.
This was the exact same carpark I called the cops from but who must have been too busy to show up - probably all busy on speed camera duty.
At least 5 cars smashed into in the sth freo/coogee area that one day. Then they just ride off along the train line reserve back to Spearwood somewhere. Cops cant follow them even if they try.

In fairness to the cops the security guy told me they dont respond because its a waste of time. Even if they take the time to get them to court & they are just lectured & sent home - laughing all the way no doubt. And why not

And if your unlucky have a good long search around in the dunes. Anything they cant carry easily on their bikes they stash & come back to collect it later.

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i had 2 cars broken into at my old house in yanchep. My mates car had about 3000 worth of stuff taken, and the pricks stole a watch and 3 packs of tic tacs out of mine.....damn scum.

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Originally posted by Pittsy

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Originally posted by Kitehard


Fists of justice
Do not attempt to physically apprehend these guys unless you are willing to break your board on their head or you have a baseball bat or you are chuck norris, they ALL carry knives and wont hesitate to make a nice hole in you.


Are you kidding me?, I would gladly smash a new board over the head of a filthy vermin ripping off stuff from my car, I'd be happy to break a baseball bat the same way.

A grand for a board broken across a vile little sh1ts head would be so worth it.

Karma will see that they die of some slow unbearably painful disease that is uncurable, like the flame from a blowtorch [}:)]

Now I'm angry again

Good winds,

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Hey guys,

don't try to hurt these guys I know how much you would wont to but if in the unlikely event they could report to the cops that you bashed them you will get in more s@*t then them and could go to jail and then there would be no more kitesurfing or windsurfing for a while and if you get a fine for it no new gear for a whie. So guys keep it clean!!! call your local cop shop and report them and if you have a UHF in your car i know in SA the cop channel is 5 so if you follow them eather on the phone to the cops or on the good old UHF and tell them where they are you may get more of a chance to get them.

have fun in the wind guys
cheers Pittsy

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What exactly is wrong with the law when the victim is penalized instead of the offender ?
Either way you see it, you're screwed.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
forbsy.

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Originally posted by dgl

had my rear 1/4 glass smashed at leightons last wednesday while kiting after work but they only took a pair of trousers - $135 to fix the window & the op shop has better trousers for $5 - pox on them

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Have you ever wondered why they smash the 1/4 glass? Are they being sneaky because a 1/4 glass makes a smaller hole than smashing a full window? Are they being considerate because it costs less to replace? What is going through their ****head little brains?