Car broken into this weekend, Happy Halloween! Options

[orvillescelica]

**Edit: I didnt realize how much i rambled on. So heres a table of contents if you dont want to read everything:
Paragraph 1: What happened
Paragraph 2: What police said
Paragraph 3 & 4: Rant about people saying to give up on the car


Ok, so here is what happened... I get home Saturday night around 1:30am. I go to sleep pretty much right away. Around 4am i hear a car alarm go off. I get my remote to see if its mine, but when i cant reset my car, i go down to the garage to see whats wrong. It takes about ten minutes for me to wake up from sleeping from the alarm sound, try my remote, get on my jacket and shoes, and walk down to the parking garage. I guess ten minutes was more than enough time for some guys to steal the gauges and gauge mount in my car, in the process cutting the antenna to the car alarm, steal the 7" monitor to my car computer, try to steal the stereo but only manage to get the volume knob, but destroying the middle dash in the process, steal my CDs, the tool kit i had in the back, all the electronic spare parts, and... oh yeah... cut a hole in the top to get in to do all this fun.

The police showed up 20 minutes later, took pictures and my statement. He said that it was most likely some random students who decided to steal that night, because mine was the only call he had that night in the North area. If it was real car prowlers, he would have gotten ten calls. So the 3 times my car gets trashed, the first is in the driveway of my car, where the police said that it was the first in 8 years. The next it is a bunch of guys who decided to throw rocks at cars. And the last, drunken college kids Halloween weekend who want to be Nick Cage in Gone in 60 sec.

I spent the rest of the weekend in bed, talking to more police and insurance people. I wasnt too mad, with exception of a call from the folks who tell me to give up and sell the car, drive it back home (a 3 day journey over the rockies in the middle of winter, in the middle of the last quarter of my grad school career) or park it in a secure garage 2 miles away. Would you pay $75 a month to walk two miles each way every time you wanted to get groceries, go shopping, go to target, visit a friend??? Of course you wouldnt!! If you had a kid and he got in trouble, would you sell him and just get (or make in this case) a new baby?? If your friend that has been one of your best friends for 8 years started getting into trouble every now and then, none of which was his fault, would you just abandon them, leave them to someone else?? Of course you wouldnt!

My car is more of a friend to me than most people ive know. She has been with me for 8 years, traveled with me to 3/4 of the 50 states, and has been my home, the luggage to everything i own, my escape, my haven, and my freedom. Shes has never let me down, not once. Ive let her down on occasion, but when she needs me most, im not about to leave. There are many places in life where compromise is expected, loyalty is not amongst them.

This post has been edited by orvillescelica: Oct 31, 2005 - 4:55 PM

[zachattack15]

Make her better than eveR!

[CelicaZR]

I feel for you man.
Hope the insurance pay out.
I'm glad your not giving up on it

[K-ESD]

omg it pisses me off whenever i hear this
i wish it would be legal to install flame throwers under the car.
This is my worst fear, i know this will happen to me one day
I'm really glad ur not giving up, take all that frustration and use it to create the craziest security system. Like 3-4 sirens, strobes, a smoke machine, super loud horns, piezo sirens in every corner of the interior, a top made of thick kevlar.... something that releases toxic gas which would attack the nervous system and put the theif in serious f-cking pain and leave them twitching on the ground, blood gushing out of their eyes and ears. oohhhh yeah !!!!!!

[creis]

dang man, I hate hearing about people's cars getting violated, specialy when I know the person and have seen the car in person, I hope your insurance pays for it in full, and you can get it back to the way it was. Also glad to here your not just gana ditch it, I know what you mean about it being more then just a car anything that you put that much time and money into becomes something more then just a ride.

[jgreening]

Never surrender!

[95CelicaST]

hook your battery to your door or something like that, so when the alarm is set and someone tries to steal it they get electricuted. Some guy did this a while back somehow ( not sure he used his battery, but some sort of device) and he was actually sued by the person trying to steal his car, because he didn't have a warning sign. So put a sticker on the window saying "Warning: attempting to steal may be dangerous to your health"

what a bunch of pricks. Do you think they are going to find them?

[tin_foil]

some assholed broke into my 86 CRX the other day. It's got a custom paint job, and nice rims, so it looks nice, but I don't keep a thing in it. They went through the glove box, and all my crap was all shuffled through, but there wasn't a thing for them to take. So I just laughed. The only thing that really pisses me off is the fact that they left the door slightly open and it was rainning. I feel like leaving a sign on my car every night now that just says, "at least next time close the door...." =]

[K-ESD]

hook your battery to your door or something like that, so when the alarm is set and someone tries to steal it they get electricuted. Some guy did this a while back somehow ( not sure he used his battery, but some sort of device) and he was actually sued by the person trying to steal his car, because he didn't have a warning sign. So put a sticker on the window saying "Warning: attempting to steal may be dangerous to your health"

what a bunch of pricks. Do you think they are going to find them?
[right][snapback]351394[/snapback][/right]

that device ur talking about is actualy a electric fence module. just a few thousand volts at a very low current, one nasty jolt. I (and my paranoid/psycho mind) thought about doing something like that but i figured if you shock someone that is trying to steal ur ****, it'll prob get mad and vandalize ur car. the best deterant is what brings attention to the scene, loud alarm, lots of flashing lights etc....

[Hanyo]

i dont think car alarms work anymore. Most of the time people ignore them. The best defence if your self. I always keep a bat next to the door. So when i hear my alarm go off, i'm out there ready to beat some crack heads.

[orvillescelica]

Well, the cops said that the alarm did its job because it alerted me right away that something was wrong. Also, since these guys were obviously not perfessionals, the alarm pressured them to steal what they could and not fiddle with the stuff that was hard to get out, which is why my stereo and car comptuer is still there. Also, my car alarm has a fuel shut off, so its almost impossible for an ametur thief to steal my car.