Car Safes : Protect the valuables in your vehicle.

Do Car Safes Protect Your Valuables?

Car safes reduce the risk.

Where is the best place to hide something of value in your vehicle? In the trunk, in the glove compartment, under a seat, behind a panel? The thing is, thieves know the hiding places, all of them.

Best advice about leaving valuables in a vehicle? Don’t, it’s as simple as that.

Auto burglary is common in most areas, the more secure your vehicle is and the more careful you are about locking your vehicle, the less likely it will happen, but leaving your prized possessions in your car is taking a risk.

Remember too that if your vehicle gets stolen, your valuables disappear with it.

However, if there is something that you absolutely must leave in your car, securing it in a vehicle safe puts one more barrier between it and the thieves.

It is highly doubtful that there are any commercially manufactured car safes available that will always defeat a determined thief who has the right tools, the skills and the time to get into it.

Most thieves however are looking for the quick opportunity, they want to break into your vehicle, grab what interests them and vanish.

They will likely not have the appetite to risk the time breaking into, or trying to remove your automobile safe even if they have the skills and the tools.

The more time they have to take and the more noise they make, the more chance there is that they are apprehended.

parked car

The more remote the place that you park your vehicle is the more chance there is that someone will break into it.

Park somewhere remote however, and it may be a different story.

Without busy pedestrian or vehicular traffic, or surveillance covering
your vehicle, thieves might be willing to take more time to get at your
stuff.

They may not need much in the way of skills either, other than brute force and the tools you left in your car.

Be aware who is around you when you are taking something out of, or putting something into, your automobile safe.

Include those who are a little distance away, they may not be able to identify exactly what the item is but would conclude that it is something of value otherwise you would not have bothered to secure it.

Parking lots, especially unmonitored lots, attract thieves. It is a good
idea to stop somewhere quiet, just before you reach the parking lot,
and retrieve or deposit your items there, ensuring that no one is
watching of course.

Installing Your Car Safe.

Some vehicle safes have bolt holes on the underside for easy permanent
fixing, others are supplied with a mounting bracket.

The usual thing is
to mount your safe under the driver or front passenger seat, or in the
trunk.

You could be more inventive and secure it somewhere less obvious, but
remember that you will not want to perform contortions each time you use
it, doing that would likely draw attention to the fact that you are
hiding something.

Other models are designed to be console mounted, many of these have a cover that fits over the top disguising it as a simple storage tray.

Without the cover a vehicle safe mounted on the console would be instantly obvious to anyone glancing into the car.

Then there are the automobile safes that are secured with a cable tether.

It must be stated that bolt cutters would rather easily bite through the cable, fortunately in most cases smash and grab thieves do not carry bolt cutters.

One end of the cable is looped around a sturdy point, for example the seat frame or an anchor point in the trunk. The other end is either welded to the casing of the safe, or clipped inside and secured when the lid is locked.

There are two things that make cable attached car safes a very popular choice. Depending where you have the cable anchored you can lift up your safe, or slide it out if it’s in a restraining sheath, and retrieve your items while the safe remains secured.

If you are on a trip and staying at a hotel or motel, you can untether the cable from your car or truck and your vehicle safe can do double duty as a room safe.

Lock It Up.

It will be wise to give some thought to the type of lock that you want on your vehicle safe.