Leaving your phone or laptop in the car? Turn it off! In Rotterdam-Centre alone, there have been 56 known car burglaries since December 1 in which laptops, phones and tablets have been stolen. Presumably criminals have a box, which even via the signal of the standby mode can be determined with great accuracy in which car for example a device with 4G is present.
With spring break coming up, it is an explicit warning for tourists and day-trippers, but it applies to the entire unit and all days of the year. Many of the burglaries were in the parking lot near the Euromast; one of Rotterdam's attractions. Natalie van Hoorn of Basisteam Centrum: "Many companies also visit the Euromast and surrounding catering establishments for dinners and outings. Precisely there, in a number of cases, several cars were broken into at the same time." In all of those break-ins, the thieves made off with telecom equipment. "We had one incident where employees of a company had six cars parked in the parking lot. Five of them had been broken into. The sixth, with most of the equipment in it, was not. That gentleman had turned off all his devices."
Airplane mode is not enough
It seems so innocent; having a drink and hiding the tablets, on which the kids in the back seat have just been playing games online, under the front seat for that hour. The risk that the window is out after that drink and the tablets have disappeared has increased with the new burglary tools. The message therefore is: áf you leave a laptop, tablet or phone in your car, even if it is out of sight: turn the device off completely. Only then can no signal be traced. Van Hoorn: "Airplane mode is not enough. The device really has to be completely turned off."
Of course, it's not a guarantee against car break-ins, and the best remedy to keep your belongings remains a simple one: don't leave valuables in your car. No matter how upside-down the world is with that.
