KEY POINTS:
Even thieves have a conscience if Gareth Jones' experience is anything to go by.
The 29-year-old had become fed up with his silver hatchback being broken into so he started attaching notes to the windows when he left it overnight in car parks in central Auckland.
Starting with the words "Dear Thief", the two notes say the car belongs to an old man and contains nothing of value. The Daewoo Lanos has still been broken into four times in 18 months - but never when the message has been on display.
"It has a 100 per cent success rate," said Jones, who works in the printing industry.
"I thought of the idea because I used to work in Manukau and left my car in Half Moon Bay [marina].
"It got broken into a couple of times, so I thought, 'oh well, let's try a letter' and it works. [Thieves] see it's an old man's car and they tend to go on to the next one."
The notes have become something of a talking point. "I've had loads of comments, which are all positive," said Jones. "Sometimes I'm sitting at the lights and people wind down their window and say, 'you don't look like an old man'."
