i don’t leave my laptop around in the car. good thing my portable companion is a netbook. but since it is my gf’s car, and when she has one, i ended up lugging around two laptop bags in my shoulder, a netbook and a regular-sized 14inch laptop. aaarggghhh….

I’d like to add a few cents, something we have learned from our company (where we give each employee a laptop).

Remove or conceal your “give-away” car stickers. If your car’s windshield prominently displays the company or location you work for, thieves are more likely to zoom into your vehicle. This is yet another reason I am a proponent of affixing stickers permanently, aside from how it eventually dirties the windshield.

Best of all, and this is a typical corporate reminder – bring your laptop with you, damn it! Why leave it in your car? Yes it might be too heavy to bring around when you are shopping or out on a date. However, consider the priceless information you are risking. Better yet, get yourself a smaller, lighter everyday laptop or netbook, something you can lug around on a typical day, so that your powerful laptop with all the bells and whistles stay more often at home where it is supposed to be still more safe than inside your parked vehicle.

Then again, we have to watch out for street thugs and snatchers.

1. Use a nondescript bag to carry and hide your laptop. There are bags that are obviously laptop bags, avoid those at all costs. A brand logo on the bag doesn’t help either. But CD-R king brand will do, hehehe.

2. Never let your laptop or your laptop bag out of your sight. When in a public space like a café, take the laptop with you when going to the restroom or when picking up coffee at the counter.

3. As much as possible, deploy a cable lock. If you have to leave your laptop in the car, keep it connected to the Kensington cable, and tie it around the seat brace, tie it or any secure area in your trunk. Think of your car as if its just another table in a trade show. You leave a laptop untethered, you give thieves more chance to take it from your car.

If you have to leave it in the trunk, prevent the driver side lever from opening the trunk. Some cars have this “child-safe” like switch at the inner side of your trunk that prevents it from being opened without a key.

4. As much as possible, avoid leaving your laptop in a car. In case you have to:
a. do not leave the laptop or its bag in plain sight. Thieves will not bother breaking into a car that looks empty. Even shopping bags attract their attention.
b. Make sure your car doors are locked and windows shut.
c. try to park in an area that’s well-lit and highly visible.
d. if you’re going to watch a movie, make sure not to park in an area obviously used by movie-goers only
e. vans with sliding windows are the most broken into. Never leave valuables in L300s and the like.

5. Do not leave your laptop in the office overnight, especially over the weekend. No matter how secure your office may be, there’s a big chance for someone to take it when no one is looking

6. Use the hotel safe.

7. When flying, do not check your laptop in with your luggage

8. In airports, do not let your laptop bag into the X-ray machine until you are sure you have a clear path through the metal detectors.

9. Keep your laptop’s whereabouts in the top of your mind. As the TV commercial says “Bawal ang pork…”

10. My personal style, I have to park in between the glossiest, shiniest sedan or SUV, that could easily be mistaken as those of ambassadors or expats or elitist few. That will make my car pale in comparison to theirs, as well as the contents of my car and my personal belongings. Thus, making mine less prone to thefts.