Either they bypassed the alarm (there’s various hacks for various vehicles, but usually this is rare for petty thieves), or your alarm didn’t go off properly.

Either way, it doesn’t matter. Thieves are in and out in seconds and nobody except the owner gives a shit about a car alarm going off. You’re better off treating it like your car doesn’t even have an alarm.

The best way to avoid your car getting broken into is to make it less attractive than the cars around it. That’s not always easy, though, so it’s kind of useless advice.

I knew people once who always left their car empty. Privacy screen over the trunk/hatch was always open. Glove box was wide open. Ashtray and any places you could store spare change - wide open and obviously empty. They even left the fucking doors unlocked.

They never got broken into, but it must have been a pain to live like that.

…again

I’d add on: depends if it’s emotional.

Sometimes people gotta process things and telling their story is what they actually needed.

Sometimes they’re giving me directions to the post office, and I can happily cut that shit short without anyone getting offended.