FAQ > Vehicle Vandalism

• My vehicle has been broken into, What can I do to avoid this happening to me again? Unfortunately theft is one of the many avenues that bring Knoxville and surrounding area people to Phoenix Glass. Here are a few tips we can offer that may help you avoid being a victim and needing a new door glass or windshield.

• Buy a good alarm system for your vehicle. It doesn't have to be a super system but be sure it has "a blinking system armed light" located in a place where it will be easily seen. Thieves don't like to risk the attention setting off an alarm will bring upon them. In most situations they will notice the blinking light and move on to a vehicle that brings less risk to them being caught. An alarm system that automatically arms itself is also a big plus in that it allows you to manually lock your doors and exit the vehicle without using the remote transmitter. The reason for leaving your vehicle in that manner is because the frequency of your hand held remote unit for your alarm can be picked up by someone using an easily legally obtainable frequency scanner. All a thief has to do is sit in close proximity to your vehicle and when you use your remote to transmit a signal to your alarm system, the scanner will immediately note and retain the frequency it used. At that point all the thief has to do is tune a small, also easily and legally obtainable, transmitter to that frequency and they are good to go.

• Don't ever leave valuable items in plain sight in your vehicle, such as a radar detector or a GPS unit, not even the cigarette lighter power cord that these items use. Another tell tail sign thieves are now using to tell if your vehicle has potential is the round suction cup smudge left on your windshield from your GPS and Radar detectors mounts.

• Never ever leave your purse or wallet in your vehicle! Unfortunately, here at Phoenix Glass, we see this one happen on a weekly basis and we are just one of many Auto Glass Replacement Centers in the Knoxville area. Thieves actually patiently sit in shopping centers, restaurants, movie theatres, exercise gyms, and it's sad to say but even at Churches and watch you tuck them under or behind your seat. You have already shown them where you put it and all they have to do after you go in is to break out a window and grab the purse or wallet and they're gone. It all happens in about 30 seconds but the aftermath of such a theft can cost you a fortune and take days if not months to recover from. It's a gold mine for a thief as they now have your ID, your money, your social security number, your charge cards, your bank cards and possibly your pin numbers if your like the rest of us who write them down because we can't remember them. They even have your address and, in most cases, a woman’s purse even contains the keys to her home and all the other vehicles she owns. Some of those keys with the computer chips built into them can be extremely expensive and you may have to foot the cost of having new ones made yourself as most insurance providers cover your broken door glass but do not cover the cost of having new electronic keys made. The cost of the keys are just the first part of replacing them. There is the cost of replacing the locks on the ignition, doors and trunk and in most cases there's a cost involved for resetting the vehicles on board computer to accept the new key which can all add up to a very significant costs.

Here are just a few example guestimates: Normal keys and locks $200.00 to $400.00 range per vehicle on average. Normal computer chip keys and locks $300.00 to $500.00 range per vehicle on average. Mercedes or BMW class type vehicles the cost of one key can be as much as $2,800.00 and that price doesn't include changing out the locks themselves. In many cases the thieves will remove the valuables such as money and credit cards from the purse or wallet and ditch them as quickly as possible, usually in a very near by trash can or dumpster, to get rid of the evidence as quickly as possible. After consulting with our Phoenix Glass customer service representatives and we inform them of that several of our customers have recovered most of their items so keep that in mind if it ever happens to you. Getting back some of your things is better than loosing it all.

• When your staying overnight in a Hotel, Motel or Inn. Be sure to remove all your car truck or SUV’s contents from your vehicle. Hotels are prime sites for thieves because they know that you are tired and in a hurry to get some rest. They also know your more than likely traveling with valuable "easy to pawn" items such as a laptop computer, GPS unit and camera and although surprising it isn't uncommon for people to leave a gun under their seat console or glove box.

• Christmas time is prime time for thieves. When people do their seasonal Christmas shopping in multi store type shopping centers or malls they routinely go into a few different stores where they purchase this and that and after each store purchase make a trip back to their vehicle to lock up their newly purchased gifts. What they don't realize is that a thief is somewhere nearby patiently watching them come and go. When the time is right the thief breaks into their car full of gifts and in about 30 seconds or less are gone with all your valuables. It's sad to see a person enter our store on Christmas Eve shortly after having their vehicle broken into and having to layout even more money to repair their broken glass but it happens many times throughout the Christmas season so do all you can not to let it happen to you.

• One of the most petty acts we have seen, is a customer who didn't have comprehensive coverage on his vehicle when his car was broken into outside a restaurant while he was inside having lunch after church. This poor fellow had to pay just under $300 dollars for a door glass the thief broke out. Believe it or not, all the thief took was a Bible that he had left laying on the back seat which he would have been more than happy to give them had they only asked. The Bible was later found not far from where it was taken discarded in someone’s front yard after the thief had finished rifling through it looking for money from the best anyone could tell.

• My vehicle was broken into and the thief evidently cut themselves, there are blood stains all over the inside of my car, What should I do? In that situation most peoples first thought maybe to think that the thief got what they deserved and wearing rubber gloves and using a little pine sol will take care of it but in today’s environments it raises very serious safety concerns. This is a fairly large subject and beyond the scope of our web site.