My car was broken into... THANKS JERKS

So I'm in a band here in Orlando, Florida. We were practicing Monday night, til about 1:30 in the morning. Then, as I'm leaving there, I decide to stop by another friends apartment. Parking was horrible there, so I ended up parking like half a mile from my friends building, right by the entrance to her Apartment Complex. It's a gated complex, and I've been there literally hundreds upon hundreds of times (we dated for like 2 years...). So, I decided to leave her place at like 2:45 in the morning. Here's where it gets crazy.

As I'm making the loooong walk to my car, I notice that the dome light is on inside. That's weird, I *never* leave the dome light on in my car. Then, I notice that my window is down. Weird, I *NEVER* leave the window down! About that time, a very suspect looking white full sized van who is illegally parked alongside the curb right behind my car, starts up and drives away. Then, I get closer to my car... and see that the driverside window is smashed to pieces! And the interior of my car is TRASHED! I mean, everything I had in the back seats was ALL OVER my car. They cleaned out about 5 dollars worth of change in my ash tray, and just made a HUGE MESS! I didn't have much of any value inside (luckilly, the day before, I took out my mp3 player, and guitar!) I knew it had to have happened within the past minute or so, because my dome light is on a timer. It was on when I approached my car, and went off shortly after...

Now, back to the van. They went the wrong way when they left, so they had to pull a U-turn and drive RIGHT back by me. As they drove past me, I shined my LED_ASAP modded Arc AAA LS on them, and caught their liscense plate number! I called 911, and told them everything that happened. Within minutes, the cops were there, and they dusted my car for prints, and I filled out a statement etc. They told me that they ran a check on the plates that I called in, and they were reported stolen! So, they had no information on the van that I described. Damn. What a pain in the butt! Now, I have to get my window replaced, and re-tinted. When I bought the car, it had an illegal tint on it, so I'm going to have to pay out of my pocket to get it re-tinted, cuz I'm sure insurance won't have anything to do with that!

I guess if you have to look on the bright side, I saved tons of other people from getting their cars broken into last night. Because, I was the second car that was hit (since I was SO close to the entrance of the complex) and I can guarantee that they were just going to make their rounds breaking into car after car, but they drove off after I interupted them. What a night. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

-Allen

there is nothing i hate worst then a thief.there skumim with out words but if ya find em beat the crap out of em

Yeah, that sucks. The same thing happened to me a couple of years ago. I had nothing of value in the car and the insurance company covered the smashed window, but it still causes a lot of trouble (talking to the police, having the car fixed, dealing with the insurance company) and most of all, it's kind of depressing. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Too bad you didn't have a SNII to shine in their eyes as they drove by. Maybe they would have been blinded, driven off a bridge and died a gruesome death...they deserve more.

I had my car broken into a few years ago and they got away with around $500 worth of CDs. A year before that my previous car had 2K worth of vandalism done to it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/xyxgun.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif

hahahaha, but if I would've had an SNII, it probably would have been in my car... and they probably would have stolen it. Then I really would have had to whoop smass!

After the second time I had car troubles, I really wanted to set up a fail safe method of having poison gas bellow out of the car if the driver's side window was shattered and alarm was armed--a la James Bond.

Needles to say that I felt a lawsuit coming on and nothing ever came of it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I'm sorry for your loss. I park in the tenderloin in SF, a major theivery area. Last time my car was robbed I remember thinking, "I didn't leave the glove box open, or the coin-tray." Well, I at least learned something from this experience:

Always leave your glove box and coin tray open. Don't leave any coins, obviously, those go in the fuse box or somewhere else. This makes your car look like it has already been rooted through. What crook wants to break into a car with nothing in it? Plus, there is a curiosity level involved with crooks. They want to know what is in the coin tray, so I show them. Nada. Problem solved.

A high end stereo can be a problem so you need camoflage for that. I just use my stock honda cassette player. They can have that. Please.

And never hang out in your car doing anything illegal. Any bum will bust your window just to search for a roach or better.

Thanks for the tips. Here's a quick UPDATE: It turns out that there WERE items of value in my car, that I didn't realize until later... I had my brand new Magellan Meridian Gold GPS, a $100 George Foreman Grill, some camping supplies, and a friends $400 dollar Citizen Eco-Drive Navihawk Titanium watch! When I found out they took my friends watch, I felt sick to my stomach... I still think I'm going to throw up. This is the best part... Auto-insurance only covers things attached to the car! Such as your wheels, stereo, damaged windows, etc. But, your personal possessions are covered by your HOME-OWNERS INSURANCE. There's a $500 deductible for our home-owners insurance. So, any way you slice it. I'm out $500 because of some @sshole!!! I didn't do anything wrong!!! And I'm out $500 dollars!!! I seriously have no idea where I'm goin to come up with that kind've money! Being a broke college student who ALREADY lives off Ramen Noodles... that's an enormous amount of money. Looks like I'm gonna have to sell some lights here soon. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

That seriously sucks. Ugh! I so wish I could help you man. I am surprised to hear about insurance not willing to help you out. Unless you KNOW they wont help you, as in lawfully they dont have to, argue some. If it was just some dude at their office saying "nope, cant help you," I wouldn't suggest fully believing them. They will do anything to get away with something nowadays. I know nothing about full coverage (assuming thats what you have) and what it covers. I suspect it differs from company to company as well.

Cameron

I have full coverage... State Farm Insurance. Any experts out there know anything I can do? Thanks for your help guys

-Allen

I kinda looked on their site but I get blocked from checking policies when it asks for a login. Try doing that and see what your actual policies are without hearing it from an actual person.

Cameron

Dang thats hard luck. Glad it wasn't my car!!!

Hmm....if the car alarm would dial in the police via wireless connection if the car is FORCEFULLY entered (i.e. broken window or tire jack in the door), that might catch more of these low life thieves. They seriously need to do something, as crooks are getting away so easily and making a nice living being low lifes.

Even better, a security system that shocks a crook (knocks them out) and also calls the police at the same time, so that the police have time to make the arrest.

Car insurance (comprehensive) covers damage to your vehicle - homeowners or renters insurance covers your possessions, less your deductible.

you should have a alarm installed

or a red flashing led(fake alarm)

Countyourself lucky that you were covered and go from there.

I had to file and exact same claim when I was in college. My buick got broken into.

Trashed/stole:
dash
window
indash cd player/radio
radar detector
9mm auto with 2 clips (campus cops were REALLY happy about this one!)

State farm paid off under auto insurance and homeowners. I was out $500 or so.

Every time I read something like this I think of two things. First, the scene in one of the Robocop movies where a commercial shows a car thief getting electrocuted for his trouble. Second, being happy because I don't have to have the hassle of owning a car. Any time saved in convenience seems to be more than made up for in expense and/or time spent doing car related "chores" like parking, registering, repairs, refueling, filing insurance claims, making money to pay for unexpected expenses like this.

My sympathies to you KingSmono. Crap like this shouldn't happen to anyone. And an eternal pox on the creep(s) who did this to you. BTW, I'm quite sure there is a market for a device like in Robocop. I'd definitely make and put one in any car I owned, along with enough warning signs in multiple languages to cover my behind in case someone was stupid enough to ignore the signs and try breaking in. No muss, no fuss, and you don't even have to call the cops. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I do sympathise with you. My car was broken into countless times for stuff as simple as the change in the ashtray. One cold-below 0 degree night, I actually left my doors unlocked so that I would not have to deal with a frozen door. Of course that was the night that some bone head decided to break my window for some change.

There are some kind thieves though. Once my wife left her bookbag full of textbooks in the back seat while we went to lunch in town. Some jerk broke the windows to steal the speakers. He took the book bag but was kind enough to leave the textbooks! They were probably the most expensive thing in the car!

BTW, even if the thieves are caught, there is little chance that your stolen items will be recovered. And there is even a smaller chance that you will be able to recover any money from the thieves.

In any event, you will probably be picking glass pieces off your floorboards for a few months. I hope your insurance covers your losses.

It's just so frustrating... Insurance is going to cover everything, but it just stinks that I have to come up with $500 dollars now in order to replace everything that I've already paid for!! I think there's something wrong with the system... On the bright side, I got my window replaced today! (good thing, cuz it rained all morning, and my duct taped garbage bags weren't gonna last much longer...) And the tint guy is going to come tint it for me on next Tuesday! I guess this whole situation could've been worse... Material possesions can always be replaced right?

Buying a whole new bunch of tools after some jerk liberates a whole boxfull will give you the grumpies BIG TIME!

It was some 3 years ago now.

I feel for you dude!