Decal Danger: How Much Does Your Car Say About You?

RICHLAND, W.A. — Bumper stickers and car decals reflect our personalities but they can also let people with less than good intentions prey on you and your family.

It’s important to protect personal information. Whether it’s posted on social media, or stuck to a car window.

“I think putting it on social media, putting it on your car,” said Dominick Miserandino, the CEO of Inquisitr.com. “We have so many means of taking that information and taking it further.”

All those bumper stickers and window decals say something about the car’s owner, and it may say too much.

“Anything that you put on your car on on your house out in the public,” said Cerise Peck, a Prevention Specialist for Richland Police Department. “Whether you think so or not, can be can be used for alternative messaging.”

Peck says that something that seems innocuous, like a sticker about paddleboarding, May reveal more than it should.

“You know there’s a possibility that somebody’s going to notice that paddleboard sticker and and they’ll know that I have quite a bit of equipment at home, and it does,” Peck said. “It’s the same with any hobby that you have sport.”

And parents who like to put their child’s accomplishments on the family car?

“I’m so proud of you. I’m going to put your, you know, sticker on the back of the car, but that kid depending on age appropriate conversation needs to know,” Peck said. “That if somebody references that sticker or has that bit of information that’s a red flag.”

Peck isn’t urging everyone to peel those stickers off the bumper.

“We just wanted to shine a different light on, you know, what could be advertised by using those those types of stickers,” Peck said.

Revealing too much, to too many could open yourself and your family to be unsuspecting victims of a crime.