At the beginning of October, a 31-year-old construction estimator named Samantha parked her Honda Fit on the street in Chicago. She left her backpack with a laptop and external hard drive in it under the backseat, and carefully covered the seat with a black blanket. Yet by the time she came back to her car, a burglar had smashed a window, broken in, and stolen the bag. Samantha reported the incident to the police, but never heard back.
Unfortunately, car burglaries are common in the United States, especially in large cities. But Samantha's experience also has something else in common with many other break-ins around the country: It felt like the robbers knew there was valuable gear in the vehicle.
"I had other things in the car worth money, like a wallet with $50 emergency cash in the glove compartment, a bag of near-new boxing equipment, and a case of beer in the trunk," Samantha says. "But the laptop and hard drive were what was taken, which is what made me think there was something involved to find electronics specifically."
A recent rise in laptop and gadget thefts from cars, particularly in San Francisco and the larger Bay Area, has left victims and police wondering if burglars are using Bluetooth scanners to choose target cars based on which have gadgets inside emitting wireless signals. Many laptops and gadgets will put out a sort of beacon by default when their Bluetooth is turned on so that other Bluetooth devices can find them and potentially pair—even when closed or idle.
"A lot of that has to do with power savings; it depends on what sleep mode different laptops go into when the lid is cl ..
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