If You See A Penny Placed In Your Car Door Handle, THIS Is What It Means!

Normally, when you get back from shopping or grabbing coffee, you wouldn’t expect to find something in your car door handle, all shiny from the sun. Seeing the penny tucked into the grip of the passenger-side made me both curious and a little uneasy.

Were those screams just for fun or might there have been a more calculated plan behind them? Finding that cent spurred me to research online, read rubberc-stories from mechanics and learn from police suggestions to try and figure it out.

First impressions of a penny don’t seem negative—it doesn’t weigh much and usually only costs what the stamping metal does. But there is lots of talk online about why someone could stick a note on the handle of a door.

Experts say thieves sometimes put a coin or piece of folded paper behind a latch to prevent it from engaging, making it easy for them to open the door in the future without making a sound. Skilled criminals often use highly developed tactics,

but thieves who seize their chance tend to use whatever is available to them. If a coin gets wedged just there, it can affect central-locking on some older cars, especially when the driver simply presses the button on the fob and doesn’t lock the car handle manually.

Besides, some of the money Cherry takes is for innocent living. A lot of drivers realize that money left in their cars by rowdy friends, bored teenagers or their own children exists and may have ended up in the cup holder.

You’ll often find pictures on social media of people stuck with pennies, bottle caps and business cards in their door handles as nothing more than jokes. Even so, myths spread along with actual reports: people claim parking lots leave pennies to mark expensive vehicles for future robberies,

while others believe it’s a tradition going back decades by people who work in parking lots just for fun. Because certainty is rare, it can be hard to separate fact from legend.

Regardless, we should at least take into account the slim possibility of foul play. As soon as I had the penny, I doubled back around the car, inspecting the lock area and any other places for new marks of tampering.

The place seemed fine, but I secured the doors by hand, took pictures of it and checked with security to make sure nothing similar had previously occurred in the lot. I wasn’t sure if I was the first to see the change, but my concern seemed to surprise everyone else.

If a coin lands inside your door handle, don’t mistake it for a small problem and leave it. Pay close attention to each lock, hinge and side of the bag. Both the button on the fob and each handle should make an unusual creaking sound when firmly pressed as this confirms the door latches are fully drawn.

You could also purchase a lock for your steering wheel or a simple block for your OBD port to disappoint anyone who’d prefer a less difficult target. Below all, if something doesn’t sit right with you, record what’s happening, let someone in charge know and avoid that area for your next parking session.

The story of my penny finally turned out to be somewhat uneventful. There wasn’t any more vandalism and we could safely walk away. Even so, I became more aware that even simple items can show possible security issues.

A car is usually our second most expensive purchase, yet we regularly wander away, hoping a few thin pieces of metal and an alert from the key will keep it secure. If you happen to notice some copper sparkle in something, spend a short while studying it more closely.