stolen car, Berkeley

Well, some low life stole my car today while I was in class. It was in the under ground parking garage and well locked. The car has been in my family for ten years until it got stolen and I paid my parents full blue book value for it, I recently out my own pocket put in a new tranny a a set of Hella 550 driving lights on it. Gone. The best the cops could say was "they may decide to abandon it after they had their fun with it."

And people wonder why I'm a Conservative. I flat out don't have sympathy for anyone period anymore. I work two jobs to go to school and drive a car that worths no more than 3000 bucks. Mean while as socialist as Berkeley is, the disadvantaged, um, youths still like to have fun at the expense of hard working people.

Two words. Pager alarm.

This is why I am afraid to bring a 1970 mustang that I have been restoring for 3 years to school with me-yeah I can probably outrun anyone who gives me trouble, but I sure as hell can't outrun them when it's in the parking lot.

Good luck with the investigation

That bites. They should pay.

Bummer man, time to bring the pain.

what kind of car? must have been a very popular model for it to get stolen after 10 years, most probably for the parts.. same thing happened to a friend's Toyota Corolla; many years old, beat up, yet stolen...
my Subaru is over 1o years old, but I don't think it was popular enough to be stolen for parts..otherwise I'd get a locator transmitter for it..
..insurance won't cover it?

Corolla, AE92, it was a stationwagon.

Wow, that REALLY bites! I can't imagine that much of a market for the parts; not enough profit for a chop shop, for an older car like that.

Let's hope it was just kids, and they will abandon it, undamaged, when it runs out of gas.

Or better yet: that they get pulled over for some minor traffic violation, and get charged with felony grang theft auto, which they so richly deserve!

Damn dude, sorry to hear about that. Most likely it wasn't for parts or anything, someone wanted a joyride. Good luck; I hope you get it back undamaged.

:buddies:

well I guess there is God after all. I got a call this afternoon from the Berkeley PD. Apparently these junkies dumped the car within 2 blocks in a random driveway, tok my lights, toolkit and pocket knife and left the car unharmed(well they took the ashtray full of quarters, but I digress).

Car is unharmed, I couldn't be happier. I just put a set of Hella 550 driving lights on it two weeks ago and they remain intact. I guess the perps got the sunglasses, tools, knife and lights and called it a night.

Now I'm shopping for a anti-theft device. Any suggestions? I'm looking into the kind that locks the steering wheel and the brake pedal at the same time.

In the "old days", just used a hidden kill switch (short coil between points and coil). Or, if you really wanted to play with them a fuel line valve (locking versions used to be available--still may be) stops the fuel... Engine will start and run for a minute then dies in a public area--may be an issue with law, cops--but if you keep your mouth closed--the car just stalled when stolen.

-Bill

Aren't you glad they didn't get your fine flashlights! Then you'd be really sorry.

Sorry to hear about the theft, glad they found it. I know how it feels to have a vechicle stolen. My old Silverado was stolen twice. The second time it was stolen, they didn't even take the carton of cigs my friend had on the passenger side. What kind of thieves leave smokes? Must have been scared. They dogged it though, driving it over a freshly tarred road.

The first theft it was found one day before being declared gone by insurance, it was in an automated oilfield. They took the tail light covers, stereo, etc. The wrecker driver was taking the tires! He even tried to claim those weren't the tires. A receipt convinced him to put them back on!

My work truck was broken into a couple years ago. The took some tools, and even my BluBlocker shades. They do the break-ins in streaks around here, hitting many vehicles in the neighborhood at once, then laying off for six plus months before returning.

I hope the lights they took weren't good ones, or at least pricey. I wouldn't even put my Streamlight TT2L in the work truck, even though that was the intent when I purchased it. Damn thieves.

After two thefts of the truck, I had an alarm installed and it disconnected the ignition. Also had two steering wheel locks, one was The Club, the other went from the steering to the brakes. It was a pain, but no one ever tried to take it again.

nah, I put a MagLEd and a Elektrolumen XM3 in there with a bunch of Duracell batts. But when I'm driving my car with 550s again, I ain't complaining.

I'm sorry to hear about your car being stolen Nick. . .

Best bet which I may do is put a nice hidden switch tha tblocks all power going into the key switch no way to hotwire a car without juice going to it. Or maybe a nice super high current switch on the positibe side with a backup battery for the radio and other sensative components then just have th eswitch off fo rparking on for driving.

Glad to hear that you got the car back and in basically the same condition.

270winchester said:

And people wonder why I'm a Conservative. I flat out don't have sympathy for anyone period anymore...

Click to expand...

Glad you got your car back, but this line made me laugh.

I hate to see broad sweeping generealizations made like this. I can't think of anyone; conservative, liberal, or a hybrid mix like myself, that wouldn't want to strangle those punks. There are enough wacko fruit-loops on both the left and the right. Unfortunately all the yelling and screaming from both ends of the spectrum seem to be drownig out the people in the middle.

My vehicle self-detonates if it is entered without code, MI5 requirements.

lucky! (so do the theives get any credit for not doing more damage? -- didn't think so..)

..old good cars do get stolen for parts though; there are lots of the same old cars still running and they need the parts which get harder and more expensive to get from the maker..