Car Break-ins

I have made numerous road trips in France and have driven in and through many regions. I have never had my rental car broken into. Common sense is the basic rule to avoid potential problems. Stow your luggage where it can’t be seen - either in the trunk or cover it over in a hatchback (any hatchback I’ve rented always had a built in roller cover). Don’t leave anything in the cabin of the car that would invite theft or make it obvious that you are a tourist. In other words, don’t make your vehicle a target.

I've read that crooks are breaking into tourists' cars and stealing
the contents.

How would they know it's a tourist's car unless the tourist makes their valuables vulnerable by leaving them out, etc? Thieves are opportunists and look for easy targets, whether a tourist or local. Pretty much the same precautions apply anywhere - don't leave your things exposed. The rest is handled by insuring yourself. Other than that, there is no point in worrying about it.

Take the same common sense approach you would at home. Don't leave electronics in sight (have a GPS? Put it in the glove compartment). Really, the odds are low - make them lower by hiding valuables as best you can. ONLY time I saw a smashed out window was in Nimes, and I thought - I wonder what he didn't hide out of sight?

If you can - to minimize loss - in case the worst does happen - take your impt stuff with you in a day bag - meds, passports, electronics if possible. If someone steals your clothes, well, not a huge deal, but if you have meds or an expensive iPad or camera or your documents go missing, that's gonna be a lot harder to fix.

For extra safety, if there is a wall in the parking lot, back in so trunk access is blocked.
In our many trips to France , using rental cars, we have never had any problems with break ins.

Use yellow food dye, then create a “used” diaper and place in plain sight. :)

It's pretty easy to tell a tourist car. The last few I've had in France have an annoying, nearly fluorescent, sticker near the gas cap to tell you what gas to put in. If it's a rental in a tourist spot, it's a tourist (possibly a European tourist).

I haven't had any trouble but I keep my small carry on out of sight (and put it there before I park somewhere).

One thing I have done is avoid any parking lot that seems to have either a lot of broken glass and/or loiterers in the area (mostly in Italy).

Yes, "they" can tell it is a tourist car, a rental car. In the 1980s in the Miami area, several German tourists fell victim to crime because "they" knew it was a rental car, as such these cars were intentionally hit from behind at stop lights when the red signal was on, some of these tourists were killed too.

Fred, that's only because the rental car companies in 1990s Miami would imprint company logos (or other types of permanent identification) on the back of the cars designating the rental car company. After multiple murders of German tourists, the rental car companies were ordered by the state of Florida to cease that practice (and the use of special license tags) because it was a signaling device. The cars were also coming immediately from the Miami Airport so their routes were predictable. I imagine this stupid behavior (of marking cars as rentals) isn't repeated elsewhere, although I've rented some cars in Canada not too long ago that still continue this practice.

I really hesitate to rent cars that have some sort of rental car display I cannot remove, or out-of-state license plates (in the case of US rentals) which also invite further scrutiny from cops, etc.

How would they know it's a tourist's car

Easy. A tourist's car has no dents.

I've not had any problem with break-ins in France but plenty of others have run into this. Leave nothing of value in your car and then don't worry about it.

Sometimes rental fleets get license plates from a particular series, so the cars are identifiable by thieves. I don't know where that happens, but it was mentioned on this forum.

This is not a new issue. It has been going on for at least 3 decades, especially in parking lots near sightseeing attractions.

It's not unique to France or anywhere else in Europe. This happens everywhere. Just about every public parking lot in the US has signs posted about leaving valuables in your car because of possible break-ins.

Keep everything out of sight in the trunk or under the cover in a hatch-back. Don't transfer items to the trunk after parking, if there are thieves in the area, they will be watching. Don't leave anything on view inside the car except maybe a newspaper in the local language. Take normal precautions like you would traveling in the US and you will most likely not have any problems. I've never had a rental car broken into anywhere, but that's just one person's experience - take it what it's worth.

We spend a lot of time on both sides of the Atlantic but are much more cautious about not leaving anything in sight when in France. In the States, I have woven shopping baskets, umbrellas, some old paper lying around. In France, it’s all out of sight.

I rented a car recently in my hometown of Houston, Texas while my car was in the shop and it had a barcode sticker on the drivers window for the rental car company to use as inventory tracking. It also had no smoking sticker on the dash (not that it was followed by previous renters). As neither of those would be something I would ever use on my personal car, I think it would be really easy to tell it was a rental car. The company also provided both sets of keys and fobs (2 keys and 2 fobs) on a locked ring along with their inventory tag so anyone watching me get out of the car and put the keys away would notice the humongous set of keys I was carrying.

Rick Steves' guidebook on France cautions that the risk of a rental car being broken into is greater in southern France vs. elsewhere in the country. He makes the obvious suggestion that no personal belongings should be visible in the car. He also suggests buying a French language newspaper and leaving it in the car where it can be seen, thus giving the impression you are not a tourist from overseas.

In Florida many years ago, rental car plates all began with a specific letter. I believe it might have been “Y.” After the murders of the German tourists this was done away with. A new type of plate was instituted shortly after and privately owned vehicles had the county of registration on the lower portion of the tag. Rentals, however, had “Sunshine State” in the same place. Some of the legislators in Tallahassee recognized the stupidity and now they’ve become anonymous.

I as going to say the inventory barcode and no smoking stickers are an easy giveaway to spot rental cars, but someone else beat me to it.

Just being sensible about what's visible goes a long way. As does remembering to lock the car (and pull the door handle to check to make sure) when you're venturing afield. I live in a beach area where the police blotter is filled with entries on 'item stolen from unlocked vehicle'. Which is kind of impressively clueless in some ways.

Thanks for the great suggestions. We'll be better prepared thanks to these.