Car owners who travel with portable devices should make sure they never leave their electronics behind or else they’ll risk the chance of a vehicle break-in, police say.
The Livermore Police Department in California issued a public safety announcement this month to alert residents that thieves in the San Francisco Bay Area are using cellphones and Bluetooth-scanning apps to find devices that are left in cars.
The tech-savvy method has become a “crime trend,” according to Sgt. Tim Lendman, who broke down how thieves have been using Bluetooth to track devices in a Facebook Reel posted by department on Aug. 10.
“If you have an electronic device in your vehicle that’s equipped with Bluetooth, say it could be a smartphone or maybe a laptop computer, thieves can use their regular smartphones, sometimes equipped with an application or even just the device itself to target that vehicle and find those devices,” he explained.