Marking the Condo Parking Lot to Confuse Burglars

C.C. from outside of Connecticut writes:

Dear Mister Condo,

We have had some burglary attempts on some of our units after the tenants have left for the day. We are looking to change our assigned parking numbers from actually indicating which unit the space belongs to to some kind of random number system so that it is not easily determined which units might be vacant. Is there an accepted or common method for doing that or should we just pull random numbers out of a hat, so to speak? Thank you!

Mister Condo replies:

C.C., I am sorry that your condo association has experienced burglary crime. There are many associations that use their own numbering systems for assigned parking spaces where the number on the spaces do not correspond with the numbers of the units. What I have seen most commonly is a number/letter combo that defines the various parking lots and spaces within the lots. However, that may not be enough of a deterrent if that code is easily figured out by a would-be burglar. I am not aware of an accepted method of selecting these numbers so your “random numbers out of a hat” might work just fine. I might suggest you use letters instead of numbers so that there would be no obvious correlation between unit numbers and parking spaces. Good luck!