Well, I guess the little SOBs finally found my car. I didn't see the passenger door slightly open this morning, but I wasn't on that side of the car.

I live on a dead-end street in a clean, quiet neighborhood, and keep the car tucked back in the back of the parking lot. The car stays covered.

They look like they cut wires under the dash, but I'm staying out of the car until the police arrive. Window wasn't broken, but I know I locked the doors.


(Edited to remove copious profanity.)

Man sorry to hear that Rusty, maybe you should get one with a removble face plate. They don't steal those when you keep the faceplate with you. I lost 3 stereos until I went to that kind.
Geoff

That sucks...hopefully the car is not damaged....


About 8 years ago when I lived in an apartment, I came down the stairs to the parking stalls to see some kid sitting in the Honda next to my car...knowing that he was NOT the owner nor a freind I calmly walked back to my apt, grabbed the mobile phone (this is before I had a cell) and called 911 while watching this kids every move...he spotted me and got out of the car and walked away...luckly the cops should up and busted him and another of his buddies that was his lookout...

Luckly for him (and mostly me) I kept my cool and I grabbed the phone instead of my Springfield Armory .45 Auto....I'm sure I would have much pleasure to splatter the little f'r's brains out in my nieghbors car....

They do not come down hard enough on these b@stard thief punks...and when they do get caught, it's a slap in the wrist..."it's only thier first time" Bullshit, it's thier first time getting caught, but not first time stealing....

end of rant...damn, my blood pressure is going higher just thinking about it...boy this stuff pisses me off when people cannot keep thier hands off of what does not belong to them

Da Bastards!

I know in SoCal, stereo theft is way down...now they just heist your entire car...sometimes even w/ the driver in it.

I'm not so convinced about the removable thing (although I have used 'em for years). Soooo many people simply leave the faceplate under the seat or in the glovebox. The thieves probably know this.

Been there. It sucks. Look at the bright side. Was the car damaged or vandalized? Stereo's are easy to replace.

But I know how you feel.....

The police just left. I was amazed.

I expected the police to show up, shrug, take down some info, and leave. This guy actually showed up and dusted for prints and walked the entire area.

Since I don't have the serial number of my stereo, he thinks the odds of getting it back is slim. He thinks they jimmy'd my door open based on small scratches in the glass and the "disturbed dust" under the window squeegee-seal.

No conclusive prints, but at least the guy tried. Their professionalism kind of calmed me down.

Looks like it was just the CD/stereo stolen and my Fleetwood Mac CD.

I feel violated.

-Rusty

Yup, that's the feeling allright. People don't understand why I'm so obsessive about having my stuff stolen. I always tell 'em, "You will right after it's happened to you."

Sir Rust-a-lot, might I suggest a vehicle security system?

Stick Death Security System

I agree totally with the violated feeling. They could have stolen nothing but you get just as pissed that you were broken into.

I had 2 stereos stolen out of my CJ7 years ago. One had a detachable face, I religiously removed that face and carried in the house with me every night. One night, the only time in the six months I had it, I forgot it. I had a sick feeling when I woke up in the morning, and when I went out my fears were realized. Had to be a sonofabitch neighbor of mine, checking every night. I bet he was the same bastard that got my other stereo.
Violated is a good description. I made plans to get revenge, but wisely never followed through.

I hate the petty stereo thief. Steal a stereo worth $25 on the street and do $1000 damage to a car. Sheesh.

Not to one up you more to advocate getting a garage here's a thread about a
pair of 928s stolen.

Good luck,
Kevin

Rusty,

Wow. Dude, this sucks.

Ginter's right. The dorks will often damage the car to get the unit quickly and be gone. (around here, the window is the fast way in, and they whack the dash to rip it out) I'm glad they didn't damage your /6!

kim.

Maybe it's just me, but I'd MUCH rather lose my stereo, or live with the fact that my next door neighbor lights up a doobie once in a while, than to watch my 401k evaporate into thin air.

There's some bastards they're not coming down on hard enough. :gilloutine:

(personally, neither of my cars have stereos in them right now. My Ghia - the engine's just plain too loud for music to be enjoyable. Anyway, my door locks don't work, and if they did, I'd sure hate to have some bozo cut through the cabriolet top to get at the stereo. My Volvo? no excuse. Stock tape player broke, and I'm just too lazy to put in a replacement.)

We had an SUV broken into to steal a <$10 clone Walkman once. The smashed door glass cost a couple hundred bucks to replace.

My best story is from 1992 or so. My old blue 911E was parked in the common garage of our condo/apt unit. One of the neighbors left their door open which by design of this place left the entire garage wide open to entry.

Around 3am or so my friggen LOUD alarm (siren + dual 911 horns) went off. The car was parked right under the fat a$$ of our landlord/bldg mgr who was a 300lb hog-riding cornfed dude. When I finally woke up a couple minutes later, this dude ("Denny" IIRC) had chased the little punk down the alley but couldn't catch him. The punk was inside my car but no damage or loss at all. Clooooose call. We are pretty sure he was trying to hotwire the car itself; the stereo was undisturbed. (It had a fairly nice >$1000 stereo at that time.)

years back the 72 pass side window was whammed for a pull out cas unit, the player wasn't even in the car. this was before the internet. i spent about 3 months trying to find an early window. the petcock i'm installing will hopefully prevent theft for long term parking. the bat terminal cut off should help too. any more when i'm parked away from home i don't bother locking it. take what you want, just don't break crap.

kevin

What pisses me off is this isn't the first time the car was violated.

In Texas, right before the MUSR 2001, the car was broken into. Window smashed, because the dork tried to pry open the "corner window". He bent the window channel, scratched the paint on the door and rear decklid with broken glass.

The cop showed up and said "oh well".

At least this time, the cops tried to do something.

I may not put a stereo in the car this time... or maybe I should just put it on the hood to save the thieves time.

-Rusty

We gots REALLY stoopid thieves.....I had a pull out stereo, and the MF used a screwdriver to pry it out....

i always liked the sticker with a stereo w/ a red circle and line and the words"already stolen" below it. broken windows, scratched paint, ruined trim, "hey buddy, i'll BUY you a cd player, just don't fuck up my car".

kevin

Sorry about the radio. Its tough to know that a thief broke into your car at your house.

Somebody tried to pry off my Porsche hood badge, right in front of my house. They bent it up and cracked it, but couldn't get it off. Scratched the hood, pushed it in, and gave up.

I was seriously thinking of installing cameras.

I think I saw an ad for a retro looking radio that hooks up to a CD changer. If I can find it, I'll post it.

Sorry again!

That would be cool. I'd love to see a vintage appearance radio with turn-knobs that was actually state-of-the-art.

Maybe gutting a vintage radio would be an idea.

-Rusty

I'm pretty sure it was in a Tweeks catalog.

I did a search on the web and found this as well:

???????

If you really want to go vintage, my father in law has some 8 track banjo tapes....

I'll check out the link.

I have an 8-track in the Bumblebee. A stop at the local flea market, and I was able to pick up a bunch of classic rock 8-tracks. For a 30 year old radio and tapes, it's pretty good sound quality.

-Rusty

My favorite 8 tracks are Alice Cooper and Aerosmith. Most of the stuff you find is garbage (ie Elton John, Carpenters, etc).

I just keep it in the car so 1) it doesn't get broken into, and 2) I'm reminded quickly that I really rather listen to the motor.

Hey Rusty....did ya skin the arm and stretch it out and put it on the wall next to your 914 sketch??

When we were in Omaha NE, the stereo got stolen out of our VW Jetta just a few days after we'd moved-in.

I was still young and naive at that point, so I reported it to the cops. Several months later it showed up at our door. Had been recovered at a local pawn shop.

I thought that was pretty cool..."hey, the system works"...unfortunately the stereo didn't. These guys are brutal yanking them out of the dash, usually doing plenty of damage. Of current little extra car (VW Cab) had the same treatment. Dash was all f***ed up by a stereo thief a few years ago.

Years ago while at school, I had to park my little beater in the stadium parking lot. Obviously not a very secure situation. I made a little fake face-plate out of foam core that I put in place of the real face plate when I wasn't there. I made it look like an old AM/FM two knob set up and painted it black. I had friends that lost more than one stereo in one semester, but mine was never bothered.

Wish I had pictures.

One of the guys that lived down the hall had his truck broken into and they took his stereo and speakers even. He superglued a couple generic razor blades on the back side of the stereo he bought to replace it. A month later, some guys broke into 8 cars in a row to get the stereos. His was the last one, and from the trail of blood I think I know what made them change their mind. If not for those razor blades, they probably would have hit a dozen other cars that night. His (slightly blood smeared) stereo was left on the floor of the truck, undamaged except for the damage to the dash.

The cops, while chuckling once they found the reason for the blood, told him he shouldn't do that again, or face charges. (for what, I don't know ) Not to mention the blood stains in the car.

As far as I know, there were no more stereo thefts that semester.

And the blood did provide a bit of vindictive satisfaction (though we never found any missing fingers or anything ).

When I was 22, working at a FLAPS to get through school one of the guys I worked with did the razor blade treatment to his stereo. After locking up one night he called over to me as I was getting in my first 914. He found his passenger side door ajar, knobs pulled off the stereo and some blood on the carpet and seat. He pushed the knobs back on and said "I won't even mind cleaning up this blood.". A few weeks earlier a girl that worked with us had the stereo stolen from her Nova. The SOB's actually took the speakers by cutting them out of the door panels and package shelf with a saw!

-Ben M.

which fleetwood mac? white album? rumors? tusk?

a buddy had a jeep cj-5 in high school that got pilaged a few times. we glued fish hooks to the back of the unit with about 8" slack in the wiring harness. sometimes the head unit would still get stolen, but we always got a good blood sample.

A couple of years ago, some group went through my neighborhood "harvesting" car stereos. They got the one out of my Honda, and obviously had opened up the hatch and so on looking for amps and changers and such. Luckily, I had left the window cracked so they just pushed it down by hand. Left a nice fingerprint or two, also! I say "luckily" because most of the other cars in the neighborhood had windows broken in.

Insurance came through for the stereo, and the damage to the center console and face plate. And I managed to total the car before getting around to replacing them.... DOH!

--DD

What are you driving these days, Dave?

I saw a sweet OlympicBlue 74 2.0L driving down I-5 yesterday. For a moment I thought it was DD, caught up to it and the driver was older and pretty bald, so not DD. Nice car thou (Mahle rims) and it ran!
Geoff

Then it couldn't have been me. The Hon-duh is keeping me on the road at the moment.

Could'a been Mike Cooley #2... He's got that Olympic Blue car with the Autronic EFI on it.

--DD

anyone have an alarm on their 914?
how much did it cost?