If you’re a writer hunting for a plot, look no further than the nearest parking lot for mystery story ideas. Cars reveal much about their owners, and they’re easy targets for crime.
When I was eighteen, my Mazda RX-7, which cost me $1,200 and had chipped paint and a window that wouldn’t close, was burglarized in my apartment complex parking lot. I never locked my car.
Well, my junky, unlocked car got robbed. They ripped my radio out of the dashboard and stole my loose change. This taught me that there’s always something to steal, even from someone who clearly didn’t have much.
While car burglaries aren’t the worst that could happen, it’s no fun to walk out to your car in the morning, ready to go, to discover that it’s happened to you. It cost me an entire morning, a day without my car for them to take prints, and several hundred on a new entertainment system.
I’ve locked my car every day since.
But my history and local car burglaries have got me thinking about mystery story ideas on developing characters and building plots. We should all ask: what’s in your car?
Regarding crimes, breaking into cars is entry-level, next to shoplifting at Walmart. If you’re a thief, you’re going to steal from cars. And because so many people leave their cars unlocked, it’s easy. Comparetively, it’s low risk with the potential for high reward.
Here is a short list of items stolen out of cars in Wilmington according to the police blotter when I wrote this article (Check out your town’s police blotter on online news site for more ideas):
$800, Invisalign braces, $400, a $3,600 calculator, a $3,000 laptop, ammunition, a Glock 9mm handgun, a Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun, $300, Martin Dingham loafers, Sperry shoes, wallets, phones, and purses.
Breaking into cars may be entry-level, but it pays BIG. Maybe. And likewise, it’s great material for mystery story ideas.
In a rash of auto burglaries (70 reports over a few nights), 31 guns were taken from mostly unlocked cars. Carelessness is precisely what criminals count on. Instead of protecting themselves against criminals, these gun owners armed them!
Like in mall shoplifting sprees, car thieves work in teams. They’re organized, targeting specific neighborhoods, staying clear of home security cameras, and snatching as much as they can before homeowners leave for work. Petty crime suddenly doesn’t seem so… petty, especially for a mystery writer.
For mystery story ideas, let’s start with character development. Guns, computers, and cash–what’s in your hero’s car?
🧼 Does she prepare (sweater, blanket, tic-tacs, hand sanitizer), or is she more spontaneous?
🚮 Does she keep it clean (air fresheners, leather wipes, portable vacuum), or is she a slob (fast food trash, a backseat full of junk, melted chocolate on the carpet)? Is it a hoarder’s den, full of clothes for a quick escape?
🚗 What make/model car is it? How old? And what does her car mean to her? Freedom? Success? Transportation only? Is it a hand-me-down? A gift? The first large purchase she made with her own money? An annoyance?
🎶 Does she enjoy her car? Care for it? Rock out in it? Use it as an escape pod?
🗺️ Is her car rough and rugged, ready for off-roading? Or is it a city car? What’s her favorite place to go in it?
🖼️ Does she decorate it with stickers? What can a stranger learn about her through her decals and decorations?
🔒 Does your character lock her car? Does she keep anything valuable in there? Does she hang lucky charms on her rearview mirror?
🤨 What’s something unusual that a character could keep in her car? And what might happen because of it?
Mystery writers tend to focus on murders, either premeditated or acts of passion or anger. But consider crimes of opportunity. These are most common in real life, so why don’t they appear more often in fiction? Maybe because there’s not much of a story there–criminal wants money, so criminal steals. There’s no sexy premeditation or juicy motive.
But what if…
- Stealing a laptop out of a car leads to the owner coming after the thief? Maybe the laptop contains trade secrets or information about a political scandal. What if the thief discovers he has more than he expected and graduates to blackmail?
- Something special is stolen? A family heirloom or some other keepsake. What might an MC do to get it back? Or what might her loved ones do to get it back for her?
- The car thief becomes an investigator when he steals an item he recognizes was owned by a girl who went missing from his high school.
- A string of car burglaries force a retirement village to take matters into their own hands… and they aren’t the helpless saps the thieves assume them to be.
Or deeper, darker…
- The gun stolen from a protagonist’s car becomes the weapon used in multiple murders? A school shooting? An assassination? How would he or she deal with the guilt? Or the accusations?
- The car owner is a criminal, too, and the low-level thief becomes the protagonist when he faces off against a real criminal–a hit man.
- The small jewelry box kept in the car’s glove box holds a serial killer’s trophies, and he must find the thief before the cops do.
- It should’ve been an easy score, lifting cash and shopping bags from cars in the mall parking lot. But then… they find the body.
Oh, the possibilities! Minor crimes lead to BIG ideas.
Looking for more story ideas? Check out my blog. And share your thoughts on crime, cars, and characters below. For more inspiration, try these posts: Best Writing Prompts: How Story Ideas Happen; A Mystery Series Love Story; & Writing Motivation: How To Keep Going.
