Women traveling alone should take advantage of valet parking at hotels, airports, and special events to avoid making the trek into the parking lot alone, especially at night. As an additional precaution, give only the ignition key to valet attendants and secure any personal documents like your drivers license, car registration, and insurance cards that might contain your home address. With enough ID a sophisticated car theft can impersonate you and actually trade or sell your vehicle claiming that they lost the vehicle title papers. The only common risk to valet parking is how safely the parking contractor secures and labels your car key while in their care. Keys should coded for security and be stored in a lock cabinet or drawer and under constant supervision.
Auto theft occurs at different times of the day, depending on the setting.
Car thefts at shopping centers occur mostly during business hours when vehicles are sometimes left unattended for hours. Shopping center employee vehicles are especially at risk because of the length of time the car is exposed and the typical mall policy of requiring retail employees to park in a cluster at the perimeter of the lot. Another example is large apartment complexes that experience more vehicle thefts during the night after residents return home from work and settle in for the evening. Law enforcement, admittedly, has been ineffective in preventing auto theft. Part of the problem is that auto thefts are not reported sometimes for hours or days after the crime occurred.