JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WJAC) — “I mean how many people see your Facebook posts, millions? How many people see your car when you are driving around town, thousands. So you are still putting the information, your information out there for people to grab,” Officer Chad Miller said.
You already keep a close eye on what gets out about you on the internet, but have you ever thought about what your bumper stickers could be saying about you and your family?
“You want people to know certain things about you. But nothing is one hundred percent. People that have a criminal mindset are going to try to take advantage of the ones that don’t. I mean that’s the bottom line, and we as a police department are saying try to limit what you do put out there about your family and yourself,” Miller said.
The stick figure: father, mother, and kids, what kind of animal you have at home, prominently displayed on the back of your car -- all drawing attention to the things in your life that matter most.
“You just want to take into account how could this information be used against me in some way by someone with bad intentions, so that comes down to a personal decision as far as what information you want to broadcast,” said Pennsylvania State Trooper Cliff Greenfield.
Both local and state police are now warning residents about the information you put on your car.
They say an important thing to remember is, don’t easily become the victim.
“You have the biggest say in whether you are a victim or not,” Miller said. "You don’t want to put anything out there that people could victimize you, put all kinds of affiliation stickers on your car, where you work, whether or not you support the NRA if there are guns in your house. All kinds of stuff is out there, so you don’t want to just feed information to people driving by.”
But what types of things are criminals looking for?
“They are going to be looking for a crime of opportunity so they are going to be looking for people or homes or vehicles that they perceive are going to be an easy target,” Greenfield said.
Both Greenfield and Miller told 6 News they cannot think of a case that ever originated from information received off your car.
“I don’t know if we have ever connected a burglary to ‘I saw their bumper sticker or I saw their family stickers.’ There is nothing that we can connect to that,” Miller said.
And while police say it may be hard to connect crime in the city back to your bumper stickers, they assure me that doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
“We don’t want people to become paranoid but we want them to be aware. just as when we are out on patrol we are aware of our surroundings we are aware of potential dangers in our community and we just want to convey that to people who live in our community to help us do our job and protect themselves as well in the process,” Greenfield said.
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