Locking your vehicle door is dumb.

Anyone that lives in a “real” high crime area knows this. I grew up in a fairly affluent area closest to downtown Jackson, MS (if there is such a thing). I’ve learned much about race relations, dealing with people, and mostly “rich people” street smarts, although, despite having attended private school at a severe financial hit to my parents, I’m quite average, financially, as are my parents.

We have had vagrants live, unbeknownst to us, in a detached garage, and only discovered their existence because one got sloppy or too drunk and his/her chair fell through the attic space through the garage area after a chair mishap one night.

Jackson is obviously horrible, but let’s talk about locking your vehicle door. In my experience, it’s been best to take all valuables out of the vehicle and leave it unlocked as compared to locking the door.

Reasoning: if a crackhead or intent criminal stumbles upon your vehicle and suspects something valuable is inside, and doors are locked…your window is fricked no matter what and will get smashed. If you keep your doors unlocked and no valuables in the vehicle, there is nothing to lose. Rummage around all you want and take napkins and receipts…you aren’t getting anything of significant value unless you steal the vehicle. Lock those doors and you risk paying for a broken window (probably $300 now minimum) plus your false sense of security property you left in the vehicle. If they really want your vehicle, they are going to take it no matter what.

In my 39 years of life, I’ve had my vehicle rummaged through a handful of times with no broken windows and no stolen vehicles. A few missing CD’s maybe, but that’s the worst if it.

For us high crime dwellers, is this accepted at this point?