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

[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?
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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....