car broken into: what to do next...

[CornMonkey]

well, my car (along with 3 others) was broken into a couple nights ago. is there a protocol i should follow in a situation like this? i know what to do when i get into an accident, but what about when my car gets broken into in the middle of the night?

stuff that were stolen:
stereo head unit
portable cd player
paintball gun
misc stuff

damage:
hood latch (probably broke when the thieves tried to get to my battery to cut the power for the alarm)

i don't want to report this to my insurance company (if i even have to) if they're not going to do anything about it except to raise my rate..

[BigJon]

I was going to say...get an alarm...but looks like you already have one.

You can always request police patrol around your neighborhood. Or park under a streetlight or closer to your building. Did your alarm go off?

[bachviet]

Call the police and then file a report with your insurance company.

[AlpineJay]

Second on calling the police and filing a theft report with them. You can choose not to CC a copy of the report to the insurance company but I doubt this will actually raise your rate. You usually get one free comprehensive coverage that's not your fault. I would speak to your insurance agent and ask his/her advice as to what you should do. If the damage is well over the deductible then it might be worth it to go through your insurance on that.

[kimchicowboy]

sorry to hear about it man.

[TERRIBLETOM]

Always file a report with the police, even mention that there were another two cars in the same lot that got broken into, this way all pertinent information gets put into a report and is part of public record to fall back on for everyone to see.

[sizemic1]

Unless you have a low deductable, filing with your insurance probably isn't worth it. They'll replace your window, hood latch and stereo..but that's it. I'm guessing you have about $700 or so worth of damages.

[BrewMaster]

i would definately file the police report and let them take prints from your car if they want to. if it was just one car they probably wouldn't care so much, but when 4 cars get hit at once they've got to do something about it. where was it parked?

[CornMonkey]

well, i went to the police station to file a report. told them that multiple cars were broken into... the officer raised his eyebrows, nodded, as if he was impressed. he gave no impression he was interested in fingerprinting my car. LA's finest. if i remembered about asking for prints, i would've. but after this officer's uninterest, i doubt it would've gone anywhere. oh, and brew, my car was parked in my underground, gated garage.

anyhoo, thanks everyone for your advice. i'm going to call my insurance agent tomorrow to see what happens next. i know what when i don't have the answers, there's bound to be someone here that does. thanks again.

[Bires]

Unless you have a low deductable, filing with your insurance probably isn't worth it.

Many window/body shops will up their prices to the insurance and then help pay your deductable. Mine is $100, and when my wife's car was vandalized (they couldn't get the deck because I ISO mounted it!) the window repair place paid our deductable, so our out-of-pocket was $0.