Like a strong magnet, parking garages in the center of Eindhoven still attract car crackers. They hit it hundreds of times last year. And in the first three months of this year, it was already 91 hits. Victim Collin Beijk is very frustrated: “I was stolen for 13,000 euros.”
Beijk often parks in the parking garage at Stadhuisplein. And let that now be by far one of the most favored parking garages among thieves in recent years. “I’m there three times a fortnight, for my volunteer work at Studio040. I always put it there because I have a lot of stuff with me,” says Beijk.
This month he was in the running: “I had four bags with me, but I only have two hands. I had already brought my laptop and camera. The intention was to get another laptop and the other camera afterwards. It comes in a large camera bag and you have to carry it with both hands.”
When he got to the car, he saw that two windows had been smashed. The second laptop and the large camera were gone. “They thought: jackpot. They got everything out. The car has been cleaned, but I think I will always find glass. You can still see small crystals in the trunk.”
“I know it’s a dangerous garage.”
Beijk is extra disappointed, because he already took this scenario into account in advance. “I know it’s a dangerous garage. I didn’t open my trunk, so no one could see that it was in there. I also removed my batteries. Just like the power of the equipment. My understanding is that there are devices in circulation that allow you to pick up electrical signals: WiFi, Bluetooth, your wireless mouse. For professional car burglars, that is a good signal to break open the car.”
Nevertheless, Beijk has a suspicion as to why his car was broken into. “I put the car very tightly against the concrete wall on the side of the trunk. I even put it in neutral and manually pushed it back a bit. I probably tried just a little too hard. Maybe they were posting.”
“If you are in a parking garage where you have to pay 22 euros per day, you expect to be safe there.”
Beijk knows that the advice is to get your things out of the car. He is very upset. “Maybe I’ve been a little naive. I was working hard and I was short of hands. I thought I had done it safely. It was not visible.”
The damage to his car was close to a thousand euros. “Fortunately, I am insured for that.” The other costs are covered by the insurance of his employers. “I have a great sense of guilt and a sense of frustration and powerlessness.”
Beijk has filed a report, but was told that nothing will be done about it. Q-park owns the garages in the center of Eindhoven. He has to solve this, says Beijk. “Q-park has to take its responsibility. You pay gold in this parking garage. If you are in a parking garage where you have to pay 22 euros per day, you expect to be safe there.”
More cameras would be a solution, thinks Beijk. “There should be a camera on every corner that just can’t read the mileage of your car. So that at least something has been filmed. People think that it is safer in the parking garage than on the street, but if you have camera images of the parking garage, you get nothing. While there are cameras on the street from the municipality and the police can easily reach them. Now you know one thing for sure: if my car is broken into in the Stadhuisplein garage, then I’ll just have to deal with it I think that’s almost injustice.”
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