You may want to think twice before decorating the back window of your vehicle with those trendy-but-tacky family stick people car decals and magnets.

Taste issues aside, police across the United States have issued a warning that they provide thieves and predators with too much personal information, according to various American news sources.

Search and Rescue Ohio, a non-profit safety organization, last week posted an image to Facebook showing how a criminal could glean information on a family from the decals.

Story continues below advertisement

For starters, the organization says, the decals can broadcast how many children you have, the names of everyone, if you have a small baby and whether or not you have a dog. Decals showing dad in military garb would indicate that he may be away on duty.

Additionally, if the stick figures are all in ski gear, a thief could surmise that the family goes away for weekends in the winter.

"Use caution when giving out free information on your car," Search and Rescue said on its Facebook page. "It is not about being paranoid, it is about the risk vs reward."

*****

Story continues below advertisement

If you have questions about driving or car maintenance, please contact our experts at globedrive@globeandmail.com.

Follow us on Twitter @Globe_Drive.

Add us to your circles.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Story continues below advertisement