Ever had a car stolen?

[b5blue]

  Share you pain and vent with me here. I have had 2 stolen from me. First was a 52 Willys CJ-2A I dearly loved with 32K original miles. It was a total rust bucket as it had spent it's entire life (Up to 1980.) as a snow plow/salt spreader for a factory in the N.E. somewhere. A fella retired down here in Florida and had brought it with him to fix up. I bought it, put a new top on it and with a little fixing had it purring like a kitten. When the bastards stole it it had every tool I owned AND all my clothes in the back! I was out of work and going to do laundry then find a job that day, left me with nothing but 2 socks, my shoes, a tee shirt, shorts and my wallet. The cop chuckled when I asked if they would look for it. It was never seen again.
  5 years later I had a TR-7 stolen. I'd converted it to a manual choke and that required you push the choke in slowly as it warmed up or it would flood the engine. I tell this because that's how Pedro Perez was caught, pushing my car with his dirt bag buddy about 5 miles from where I lived. A cop saw them pushing it @ 3AM and pulled up to offer assistance and they ran. (The choke messed up their joyride.) The cops had Pedro in jail (He did 18 months.) and my car impounded at a junkyard before I was up the next morning. The cops told me all about this when I called to report it stolen. The junkyard would not release the car to me as it was evidence, the cops would not release the car till it was processed, the paper work moved slow so after a week I went to the cop shop and had a melt down at the counter! They released the car I went to the junkyard and paid 85.00 in fees only to find my car sitting in the mud, windows down with 2 inches of water on the floorboards. The assholes let the car sit in pouring rain for days with the headlights still on claiming they are not allowed to touch the car as it's evidence. I bought a new battery came back and drained the body, got it going and don't think I was ever more pissed off. 
  I won't even go into the weird mess from my stolen Suzuki 400 Apache.....   That's why there are hood locks on my car for the last 17 years!       

[440]

Touch wood I've never had a car stolen. Filling up most of the time I leave the window down and keys in it.

[Charger RT]

I had an 88 dodge caravan stolen from me. It was a great van except for the mitsu-shitsu 3.0 engine. Philly police called me a year after it was stolen and asked if I had ever found the car. I replied I thought that was your job.
Tim

[BrianShaughnessy]

My 00 Cherokee got stolen last year when some ph8ckhead found my spare key after going thru the neighborhood breaking into all the cars around looking for $$$ and whatnot after he got away from the cops who didn't bother to "send somebody around the back".

Cost me $260 impound fee and another few hundred to fix the bumper / grill.   Then I wrecked in back in October on black ice anyway...   swapped the motor into a blown engine special red Cherokee I got off CL.   It lives on.

The stupid part was me seeing this dipsh8t driving back down my street after dropping off the coke-ho tramp that lives down another street with some family of drug mafia trash and chasing my jeep down the street in my socks while on the phone with the dispatcher and then listening to the sirens of the car car chasing my jeep thru town.      

When I went to try to get it,  some detective peckerhead  tried to blame the whole thing on me and my spare key... um... this dickhead was on the run since about midnight,   and they didn't find him...   he was in custody within 5 minutes of me discovering my jeep missing.    Yup... detective peckerhead was all over it.      

[myk]

F**king thieves man.  No car stolen from me, but two days ago my $2000 road bicycle was stolen out of my Trans-Am.  I was off work but had to run to the bank because I didn't want to leave the night crew without enough change for the evening.  I hurried back to the store and was in such a rush to dump the bundles of cash and change I was carrying that I didn't roll up the windows.  Two hours later I came back to the car and noticed the bike was gone.  

Few things are lower than a goddamn thief.  I spend weeks slaving away at a low pay, no respect, thankless job to buy a below average racing bike just so some piece of s**t can take advantage of my one lapse in vigilance.  Heaven help the loser that I catch with that bike or even LOOKING at my cars the wrong way.  Live and learn, I guess...

[Paul G]

I had an 89 Camaro RS while I was going through a divorce. I was living in an apartment complex temporarily. One night the cops are knocking on my door. Ask if that Camaro belongs to me. It was sitting in my parking spot with the driver door open and one blinker flashing. The dirt bag pulled the lock out of the door to get in, then tore up the steering column  trying to get it started. It had the chip key system and would not start with a screw driver. I had such a feeling of being violated. Some sleezy pimp punk was in my car. At least it wasnt stolen.

[twodko]

The three most heinous and despicable crimes to me are crimes against child/women, thieves and liars.

The first deserves, if proven guilty, nothing short execution - period! And screw the libs on this.

We could curb thievery by taking a lesson from mid eastern customs......you steal, you lose a finger etc. Harsh but one hell of a deterrent.

Liars are best ignored.

The reality of life is if a thief wants your stuff they will find a way to get it. Precautions are our best bet IMO and insurance.
We have an alarm system and an inexpensive, 4 color cam plus DVR monitor surveil system. (less tha $200), video
doesn't lie.
A weapon you can actually use. .45 & .40 cal hand guns have plenty of stopping power. .45's are great within 10 yards. If you're a good shot, .40's are accurate to 25 yards for a non pro. There is nothing short of a Mac10/Uzi for intimidation except a good semi-auto shotgun.
IMO living rurally makes a weapon a must.......urban living too but a bunch more scrutiny unless absolutely
justified. In either situation if you justifiably kill someone, the lowlife family will go after you in civil court.  

[myk]

I'd love to catch a thief in the process of ripping off my stuff while I'm carrying.........IN TEXAS, of course.  In California, the rights of the criminal are far more important than that of the victim so defending my property here would just get me in trouble...

[Memphis Mopar]

Yes 4 years ago I had my 2003 Dodge Ram stolen from the parking lot at work (Tropicana). Even with security on site. Two days later I get a call from Tampa PD informing me that they found my truck in a crack neighborhood behind the dogtrack off interstate 275. It appears that it was stolen and used as a moving truck.

[myk]

Yes 4 years ago I had my 2003 Dodge Ram stolen from the parking lot at work (Tropicana). Even with security on site. Two days later I get a call from Tampa PD informing me that they found my truck in a crack neighborhood behind the dogtrack off interstate 275. It appears that it was stolen and used as a moving truck.

Good God man, I guess U-haul wasn't an option for them...

[Brock Lee]

Yes, I wont get into it because it still bothers me and will ruin a so far decent day.

But here is a story of hope for you guys. My buddy had a cool car stolen in the early 90's. 17 years later he gets a call from the local police saying they recovered his car and asking him to come pick it up. He couldn't believe it and was sure it was going to be trashed and likely rotting after all these years. It was in the exact same shape he had last seen it. It was stolen and stashed in a warehouse along with a bunch of other stolen and not stolen cars the police had discovered on a tip.

[John_Kunkel]

On Chrismas eve 2003 I had three vehicles stolen, a '97 Viper, a '68 Hemi Roadrunner and my '00 Harley Night Train. Got the Viper back but the others are gone forever.

[royt440]

Yes, my own son (and one of his friends) stole a 3000GT for a trip to see his girlfriend in a town about 40 miles away. A deputy clocked him at 120 on a two lane highway at 2 in the morning and they ran.  Ended in a spinning wreck that crumpled opposite corners against a dirt embankment. No damage to either perp.

Next, the same son stole my Buell and crashed it head on into a curb while drunk. Another 2 am call catches me 1000 miles away on vacation.  Broke both his ankles and a couple hundred in damage to the bike.

Don't kick me (a mother's love is past understanding).

[Bobs69]

I WISH!  But seriously no.  We've had experience with the insurance company, my wife more then me and you don't really come out ahead.  You don't even really come out even.  Sometimes I'd like to see one of my headaches gone, but I'd only have to shell out more cash to get another.  Insurance company doesn't cover the tax.

I had a co-worker that had his truck stolen from the parking lot at work.  Kingston police never even showed up to take a report.  I guess his shift ended at the same time the cops were doing a shift change?  We joked that I could goto the parking lot, report my car stolen, no one would show up, drive it home and simple keep the car for parts.  That's how interested they were in taking a report.

They didn't even bother talking to the neighbouring police to see if they spotted the truck 40minutes away, which is where another coworker spotted it!

[myk]

On Chrismas eve 2003 I had three vehicles stolen, a '97 Viper, a '68 Hemi Roadrunner and my '00 Harley Night Train. Got the Viper back but the others are gone forever.

That's just TOO much...

[stripedelete]

On Chrismas eve 2003 I had three vehicles stolen, a '97 Viper, a '68 Hemi Roadrunner and my '00 Harley Night Train. Got the Viper back but the others are gone forever.

Holly crap!  Were you on vacation?

[wingcar]

Had a 1973 Pontiac Trans-Am stolen when I lived in an apartment....sad thing is I was getting ready to fix the trans, as it leaked so bad I had to refill it every morning...wouldn't you know it, the one time I filled it the evening before.....My neighbor ran outside with a .45 in his hand.....luckily he didn't fire or he would have been in trouble.
Then many years later I had a Chevy Monte Carlo SS stolen right out of drive way.  I actually recovered the car a year later for the insurance company....a friend found it behind a gas station under a car cover.   Funny how no one at the station recalled seeing the car parked there.  Unfortunately, by this time the insurance company had paid me off, so the car went to auction. 
Both these cars were stolen in the Phoenix area.......

They need to hang these thieves like they did with horse thieves back in the day.........................     

[Homerr]

After my first foray with a 69 Charger I went to the other extreme and bought a 95 Civic.  Here it is finally totalled 2 years ago.  This was after the 2nd time it was stolen.  It had also been broken in to another 4 times with radio to a few cents in the ashtray having been stolen.  Good little car, but thieves are a a-holes and they love to mess with Civics.

[John_Kunkel]

On Chrismas eve 2003 I had three vehicles stolen, a '97 Viper, a '68 Hemi Roadrunner and my '00 Harley Night Train. Got the Viper back but the others are gone forever.

Holly crap!  Were you on vacation?

Nope, I slept through it all. The thieves picked a dark and stormy night (heavy rain and wind blowing 30 knots). My neighbor saw a slide-bed hauler in my driveway but didn't think anything of it because I was always having cars moved in and out.

[mauve66]

87 toyota p/u
taken from in front of the house, called the cops-filed report, called the insurance-filed report, never heard back fro either one, after a week i called the insurance to see what we were going to do, they said i had to wait 30 days to see if it turned up or not, not their problem that i had to get to work, on day 29 the cops found it, after my 500 dollar deductible the insurance pitched in the next 250 or so to finish fixing the column so i could drive it again.  sold it 6 months later and have never had farmers insurance again

[67440chrg]

In the mid 80s I moved from the sticks of Okla to Mo. I had a real straight 72 Se big block. It had a bunch of front end problems which would not be a big deal now. I left it at my sisters property in the middle of nowhere. a couple months later went back down and someone had stold my Holley. The next week after trying to get a trailer and failing I went back and pulled the non original 383 and 727. A couple weeks later went back and someone had taken the body. Its a shame how what was another old car 27 years ago would be a great project now. It was b5 with a white top and blue int.

[Old Moparz]

I've been fortunate that I've never had a car stolen or broken into, but things were stolen from my convertible that I used to leave unlocked. (I don't count that as broken into....lol)

What was stolen was a crappy $39 under dash, cassette deck from Radio Shack, along with the speaker wires but not the speakers. Maybe they already had good speakers?    It was my daily driver back then & I had purposely left the car unlocked since I never wanted anyone to cut the roof open to get in. The damn roof cost me a lot more than the car did, so I never left anything expensive in it. I also never thought anyone would bother with a crappy under dash cassette player let alone several feet of wire. 

I tried to lock the car only once when I went to NYC one night. The key broke off in the door lock when I tried, which sucked since it was also the ignition key. Good thing I had some tools in the trunk so I could remove the ignition lock & use a screw driver to start the car & go home.

Now that I think about it, the car has never been locked since I've owned it, dating back to 1984 when I got it. It does stay in a locked garage now, & has since I started keeping it indoors around 1986 or 1987.

[chargermike]

had my 68 charger stolen in cheyenne wyo back in the 80s. was there for frontier days. came back to the parking lot and it was gone. someone took it for a joy ride and left it parked in a front yard. cops towed it and i had to pay 150 bucks to get it from the tow yard. car was fine no damage and no gas and they left the radio on a damm country station.  gald i got it back.

[Dino]

they left the radio on a damm country station

There's nothing funny about having your ride stolen but that line made me crack up!   

Never had a car stolen but lost my appartment and everything I owned to a fire, including my 68.

When I was still living with my parents we had a break in so I know the feeling of being 'violated'.  There's something about having these excuses for lifeforms in your home or car.

[nvrbdn]

had an old ford van stolen from my apartment in victorville california in 1977. early 60's style, had a V8 installed and was getting ready to paint. came home from work and asked the wife. she said, i thought you drove it to work. i said nope, i drove the car. never did find it and calling the cops never helped either. oh well.

[Bobs69]

I wish! sometimes I really really wish.