“Just don’t leave the vehicle unattended while luggage is inside.”

My friends live near Modena and took their visiting family members to Modena a week ago for lunch. They parked in the city center and the family visiting from Switzerland left their suitcases in the trunk of the car. While they ate in the city center with the car nearby it was broken into and the luggage was stolen.

After living in Italy for almost 60 years, my car was never broken for stealing (but I got a couple of rearview mirrors broken out of simple vandalism). In an instance few months ago, I forgot my car open in front of my working place, I found that somebody entered and had sifted and moved everything in the car, but there was nothing of value to steal and nothing was stolen, not even the car papers.
I almost never leave anything in plain sight, and if I have something very valuable I bring it with me - this being mostly my laptop, worth actually a few hundred euros but replacing it with a new one and updating from a backup could take me two days. To be honest, I do not drive in southern Italy, where the problem may be marginally more serious. In rare cases I had to leave a fully loaded car unattended, without problems, but it was in rural northern Italy.

I don't know the rules for all EU countries (or if there even are any) but it really annoys me that the rental cars are often easily identified. I was able to remove a big company-identifying sticker off of the rearview mirror of our rental car in Spain this past spring; I could not remove the identifying materials from our rental in France. Seems the US outlawed such identifying items from rental cars a few years back, if memory serves me correctly, in response to the targeting of rental cars. Of course, thieves don't only target rentals.

There's no simple answer. If you leave things in an unattended car -- pretty much anywhere in the world -- there's a chance they'll be stolen. It's impossible to predict with great certainty how high the risk is, although you can make reasonable guesses about relative risks (location, time of day, how long it's unattended, appearance of car, etc.). But those are just guesses and partial mitigations. Sometimes you have no good alternatives and you have to take your chances. It's a bad feeling you get as you are walking away from your car knowing your stuff is vulnerable in it. No simple answer. Some things in life are like that. Prepare for the worst (try to manage the risk) and hope for the best.

I think that its one of many risk factors to take into account when deciding to rent a car for the trip. You have to weigh the probability versus the consequences. In your case, the worst consequence is having to replace things difficult to find. Thats not as bad as losing a laptop or camera equipment etc. Any of those statistics aren't likely to be specific enough to base a decision on.

Perhaps consider ways to mitigate the risk. Take those most important items with you when you leave the car.

surely there are factors that make that more or less risky?

One ironclad rule we have is to never open the trunk when parked and leaving the car. Before arriving somewhere we'll stop a mile or so early to get jackets, cameras, etc. Some parked cars have luggage in the trunk and some don't, but the odds rise to 100% if someone watching the lot sees you open the trunk.

Seems the US outlawed such identifying items from rental cars a few
years back, if memory serves me correctly, in response to the
targeting of rental cars.

Could be they are not rental cars, but we see a lot of cars with a bar code decal on a rear window. Who has a bar code on a privately owned car?

TC our gated community has a barcode on a window.

In Risk Management, when we do the annual Risk Assessment, we define Risk as the product of two factors: Probability of Adverse Event X Severity of Adverse Event.
The probability is a measurable factor, based on statistics. The Severity is somewhat more subjective. Having all my clothes stolen is not a big deal as loosing my computer device. But for others, losing the clothes could be devastating.
The probability of being a victim of a car break in is definitely lower in a small northern town (like Tuscania), than in a big city in anywhere. Italian crime statistics by the Ministry of the Interior, are kept at the provincial level, and apparently southern provinces have more of that than northern provinces, however numbers would probably vary greatly in different locations within the same province. The smaller the town the lower the petty crime.
There are strategies you can employ to mitigate the risk of having your car targeted:
- park in a well lit area where there is plenty of foot traffic, if you cannot park in a guarded garage.
- do not leave your trunk contents visible.
- scatter all your clothes in the trunk so that it won't be as easy as pulling out a bag and run.
- back up your car against a wall or a tree to make it difficult to open the trunk.
- put the things that are more important to you (maybe that special shampoo bottle or that fancy lingerie) hidden in the spare tire compartment (which is even more difficult to access if your trunk cannot be open and you access the trunk area from the back seat in a hatchback car).
- above all, take with you anything that is devastating to loose, like electronic devices and passports. Passports have no street value and are relatively easy to replace at the closest US Consulate, but if they accidentally get stolen with the rest of the bag, you need to drive all the way to the closest US Consulate and waste all day in the process of replacing it.

We compartmentalize things, mostly into clear bags, and spread some of them around the trunk compartment and leave our suitcases open. The theory is a thief will assess the junk and will only take a few items, if any. We also leave only Italian language material visible in the car - the pink Italian sports newspaper is a favorite.

Mike:
I heard that in Naples now thieves target specifically cars with the Gazzetta dello Sport on the dashboard.
I think they are a step ahead of you on that one.

Cala, thanks for your comment; hadn't thought about that. Even so, seems like a lot of cars with bar codes around us and not that many gated communities. But we may be mistaken.

I think the issue is the fact rental cars are easily identifiable.

We were in the "autostrada restaurant" and someone broke into the car we parked next to - - everything gone in seconds.

I had a client leave everything in their rental car on their way to the airport to fly home - park it at a restaurant and everything was stolen ... including their passports (I had warned them about leaving passports unattended so they got little sympathy from me) - they spent 4 extra days including getting to Milan to the embassy/consulate to get passports so they could return home. Don't leave your bags in the car!

We never open the trunk where we have just parked. As someone else mentioned one should do it before arriving at their destination. Backing into the space if possible is something else we do. Our strategy for the trip we are currently on is when we make stops while transitioning from one base to another we take a daybag with us that contains everything we can’t afford to lose, like electronics (including adapters and charging cords), prescription medications and paperwork including passports. We can replace clothes, so we aren’t worried about them.

I suppose then you have to figure, even if you leave nothing in the trunk, the thief does not know that, so will break in and damage the car, which still presents a problem.

I think for the most part, it is an unlikely occurrence, but like pickpockets, there is enough reports to be a concern.

All suggestions given are very good, but is very difficult predict and be safe.
I add a suggestion: when you stop in a city/town, mainly of touristic, leave the car in a guarded parking lot. Even if are only few hours. Or leave the car in a place with a lot of people passing. The most of theft in a car are "occasional", so not a person who is following you. Often a thief who has the chance to make easy money. The most don't try to do in a guarded parking lot or where there are onlookers who can call a policeman. A parking lot of an "autogrill" (the restaurants on the highway) or of a commercial center are instead very dangerous, because you can easily hide or fly in few seconds.
In general this crime is spread everywhere and is not directed to tourists except in very touristic cities (Rome, Florence, Amalfi coast...). So you could be in a small village of a not-so-touristic area and if you leave you car unattended could be found broken and everything disappeared.

Is interesting instead note how the crime perception is far from the datas. There are more theft in car in northern Italy and is easy to be understood: more wealthy, so is easier find value. Here some statistics: https://lab24.ilsole24ore.com/indice-della-criminalita/indexT.php (look for "Furti su auto in sosta"). Milan, Rome, Modena, Monza and Prato are the top "dangerous" cities. In Naples the rate is the half of Milan.
BTW: the statistics are presented by Il Sole 24 Ore, an economic newspaper. Is yellow, so maybe you can try that one on the car.

Sounds like the day may soon arrive when the Tesla Sentry camera is standard equipment in many more car brands.

Sounds like the day may soon arrive when the Tesla Sentry camera is
standard equipment in many more car brands.

In Naples it's the first thing they'll steal.

“It is their work” - That was what my hotel host in Naples told me when I came back one day and told him my camera had been stolen (which was totally because of my carelessness.) He was right. That was a long time ago, and I don’t think employment has improved much, especially in Naples.

Last time I rented a car in Italy it had ROMA plates so as soon as I left town I may as well have been screaming TOURIST out the window

Relatively recently on 3 separate trips, in Italy, we’ve used rental cars in Milan/Venice, Tuscany & Puglia with no problems. Similarly in France, Spain & Portugal. But thefts could happen anywhere including your home town. You just have to be unlucky.
In 1972, travelling & camping around Europe for about 4 months in an older VW Bug with Dutch Plates (obviously tourists) we stopped in Rome, parked the car in the street and went up to visit a friend living there. A couple of hours later, we came back to the car and the rear window was broken and our suitcase which had been behind the back seat with our ‘good clothes’ was gone. Looked like they had tried to force the driver’s door but were unsuccessful. The most annoying thing was finding a place to get the rear window replaced, the cost and time involved. They didn’t get our camera, our camping gear and clothes and a significant amount of cash in various currencies that were packed behind the driver’s seat or on the backseat covered by sleeping bags etc that were drying out. We didn’t worry about replacing our good clothes.
We left Rome as soon as the window was replaced and headed north west and this year, 50 years later, I will be going back to see Rome for a few nights and just using trains, buses and taxis. I’m looking forward to it.
I believe RS said in one of his shows: “don’t park your car in a lot that sparkles” i.e. has a lot of broken glass lying around.

Many thanks to all of you for your thoughtful replies —- it helped me think through what I wanted to do! The few times we have left our bags in the car, we did employ all the strategies people mentioned except for scattering our stuff around and putting extra-precious stuff in the spare tire compartment. But in the future, when I know the plan is to eat lunch or go see a church or museum on our way between bases, I am just going to pack important hard-to-replace things into the same small under-the-seat bag I use for the exact same items when we fly and have to check bags.

Adding up all the time we’ve spent in Italy, it’s been more than a year total of nothing stolen, but at home we’ve had things taken from our porch, yard, garage, truck, and just once my car that somebody not me left unlocked. My stuff is probably safer here (we’re in Italy right now) than at home, but I’ll just feel better if I don’t leave it all in the car. Problem solved, and thanks again!