Photo: PlanetFitness.com
If you like working out on the regular and you usually drive yourself there, invest in a lock for your locker. There’s a new trend in car thefts and it targets women working out at big health clubs, who don’t bother to lock their belongings.
The Madison Police Department says that at least 8 cars were stolen over the past 3 weeks in Madison, all of them the same way, all of them parked outside local gyms, Channel 3000 reports. Victims were female, as were the suspects, who talked their way inside and then gained access to the car keys.
The MO is simple, Madison Police Department public information officer Joel DeSpain explains: one woman or more chat up the receptionist and lies about needing to get access into the locker room. They usually say they or a friend left something behind, so they need to retrieve it.
Once inside, they look through all the bags and purses in unlocked lockers, and take credits cads, car keys and gym membership cars, which they use to gain access into other buildings from the same club. They go outside and try the fobs, and go on quick shopping sprees with the credit cards before dumping it all, cars and cards.
Most of the time, the owners have no ideas they’ve been robbed, DeSpain says. They’re still working out inside the gym when the suspect or suspects is spending their money and driving their car.
The solution to end this worrying trend is equally simple: buy a lock and lock up your belongings while working out, no matter how exclusive your gym is or how secure you believe it is. Or, like the woman interviewed in the video here, make sure you drive a manual transmission car. That’s what stopped the thieves from taking her vehicle after they stole her keychain from her purse.
The MO is simple, Madison Police Department public information officer Joel DeSpain explains: one woman or more chat up the receptionist and lies about needing to get access into the locker room. They usually say they or a friend left something behind, so they need to retrieve it.
Once inside, they look through all the bags and purses in unlocked lockers, and take credits cads, car keys and gym membership cars, which they use to gain access into other buildings from the same club. They go outside and try the fobs, and go on quick shopping sprees with the credit cards before dumping it all, cars and cards.
Most of the time, the owners have no ideas they’ve been robbed, DeSpain says. They’re still working out inside the gym when the suspect or suspects is spending their money and driving their car.
The solution to end this worrying trend is equally simple: buy a lock and lock up your belongings while working out, no matter how exclusive your gym is or how secure you believe it is. Or, like the woman interviewed in the video here, make sure you drive a manual transmission car. That’s what stopped the thieves from taking her vehicle after they stole her keychain from her purse.
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