Think Your Car is Safe from Thieves Think Again

ARA - Every time you park your car, youre taking a risk.

Just ask David J. of Stanford, Conn., whose 1998 high-performance Acura Integra Type R was stolen right under his nose just one month after he installed a top-of-the-line security system for $1,500.

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"Mothering Sunday" is another early Mothers Day tradition that has shaped the way we celebrate our mothers today. This English holiday dates back to the 1600s, and involved young servants who pampered their mothers with fine delicacies. While we continue to celebrate the mother figure in modern America, it is most often with traditional gifts of flowers and cards. But if Mothers Day is indeed about the most personal sentiment and respect for a mother, a gift of gratitude should warm their hearts forever.

car was tire tracks in the newly fallen snow.

"They found it three weeks later, stripped clean," he added.

Davids experience is not unusual, says James Cooper, CEO of Ultimate Security Systems Corporation of Irvine, Calif. Despite manufacturers claims to the contrary, most security systems are easy to overpower and hardly even slow down a professional thief, said Cooper, whose firm created and markets the PowerLock anti-theft system.

Every 25 seconds

The National Insurance Crime Bureau www.nicb.org reports that 1.1 million vehicles are stolen nationwide each year. Thats one vehicle every 25 seconds in what has become a $7.5 billion-a-year-industry, according to the Insurance Information Institute www.iii.org, a trade organization. Its an industry, moreover, dominated by organized auto-theft rings that steal cars to fill contract orders. And no wonder: A $20,000 stolen vehicle can be stripped and sold into $30,000 worth of parts, insurers say.

Your car doesnt have to be a high-performance vehicle like David Js to be an attractive target for a thief with a list of parts, or with orders for a particular make and model of a car. Different models of the popular Toyota Camry and Honda Accord swept eight of the top 10 list of cars reported stolen in 2000, according to an annual study conducted by CCC Information Services Inc., a Chicago-based supplier of software and communications systems to auto insurers. Chevrolet and Ford pickups captured the