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Locking car doors, windows important for personal security

By Carol Kulaszewski, Claims Adjudicator

With the arrival of summer, many of us are packing our vehicles and heading to the nearest lake, beach, or mountain. As you pack your vehicle with coolers, camping equipment, CD players and CDs, remember that there are individuals in the shadows who are looking to steal any possessions you may leave in your car.

The Claims Office wants to remind you of the importance of locking your doors and windows when you leave your vehicle. Additionally, the passenger compartment of a vehicle does not provide adequate security except for short periods of time. Other than maps, child car seats, a reasonable number of CDs and similar items kept in the passenger compartment for immediate use, remove your property and lock it in the trunk whenever you leave your car. When you are at home or staying somewhere overnight, remove your property from the vehicle altogether. This is especially true of valuable, easily pilferable items such as cameras, cell phones and wallets. Neither the passenger compartment nor the trunk of a vehicle is a proper place for the storage of property unconnected with the use of the vehicle.

Vehicle owners are expected to bolt to their vehicle items that are not factory-installed, such as CD players, speakers, CBs and similar accessories. Such items are not secured merely by mounting them on a slide. Loss of car covers and car bras are payable only if these items are bolted or secured to the vehicle with a wire locking device. An item may be considered permanently affixed if one needs tools or a key to detach it. Manufacturers continue to develop ‘theft-proof’ products. One such product is a car radio with a removable faceplate, which should be removed when you leave your car.

Soldiers are also expected to take reasonable measures to protect their property from theft by securing the windows and doors of their barracks rooms, quarters, wall lockers and other storage areas. Soldiers in the barracks are expected to take extra measures to protect cash, valuable jewelry and other easily pilferable items. These possessions should be kept in a locked container within a secured room. Double protection is extremely important when more then one Soldier shares a barracks room. Similarly, Soldiers in quarters are reminded that if they are in their back yards, the front of their quarters should be secured. Open doors and windows at the opposite end of a house are easy targets for thieves.

With today’s high gas prices, more people are riding bicycles and motorcycles. You are expected to keep a bicycle or motorcycle indoors or to chain it to a fixed object outdoors (such as a rack, pole or tree), if one is reasonably available to prevent the item from being stolen. Locking handlebars or locking the wheels together normally does not provide sufficient protection. Because helmet chin straps can be easily cut, securing a helmet to a motorcycle by the chin strap or by a lock run through the chin strap does not provide sufficient protection. The owner should take the helmet inside or secure it by a wire-locking device run through a hole in the helmet.

Stolen items not properly secured while on Fort Lewis are not compensable under AR 27-20. For more information, contact the Claims Division, Office of the Staff Judge Advocate at 967-0704. Safeguard your property and enjoy the beautiful Washington summer weather.