tuffluck

iTrader: (4)

goddamnit. last night on the first level where i usually park was full, so i parked on the third floor. oddly i used to live on the 3rd floor and always parked in this exact same spot with no problems. tonight the one time i do it again some guys broke into my car and stole my $3,000 system...all of it. the cops caught 2 of the guys and found my 2 subs, but both of my amps and deck are gone. apparently they shoved a screwdriver in the latch area under the driver's side door? it unlocked it.

i had all my stuff concealed behind the rear hatch cover, and my faceplate in the head unit. they must have seen my old alternator in the rear seat, saw it was something shiny and broke in to get it. then discovered all sorts of goodies, because my car is clean usually and you can't see **** or that i have a system.

man i feel so violated...not only that but it's where i live. the cops were talking and got my address where the burglars could have heard which apartment i live in and i whispered and said, "do you think they hear this would they come to my house?" and the cop said the defense attorney will get all of my information and can give it to them anyway, so they'll know where i'll live regardless. he said he's never heard of retaliation attempts but that still bothers me. do you guys think i should worry about that? i'm going to try and move apartments now, can you get out of a lease for someone breaking into your car like that? i would have rather this happen at a club or something rather than where i live.

they broke the plastic thing that holds the deck in place behind the dash. anyone know the part number or item number to call a junk yard to get a replacement? i can't tell what all else they broke right now. sucks so much, especially too cause i'm losing my job at the end of this month!

apparently in texas these guys will be out tomorrow. it's only a misdemeanor. what the ****? what about the $3,000 in damage? that's retarded law.

cfallsguy

iTrader: (1)

Do you have the receipts of the equipment they stole so you can show them the cost and file a suit? And even with every precaution taken to prevent getting broke into, if a thief is suspicious or anything they'll still break in. Sucks that people can go that low and that scummy to have to steal someones stuff. About the retaliation thing, i'd highly doubt it since they already got most of your stuff but you could sit outside in a bush with a shotgun and wait to see.

fleetmgr

Nope, you'll still be stuck with the lease unless TX law is a lot different than OK law. In fact, I bet if you read it carefully there will be an exemption for liability for anything happening in the parking area.

I feel your pain, but this is why it's important to vote.

QuickSilver

iTrader: (22)

Where in Dallas are you man?

mike171562

iTrader: (4)

how did they catch the guys?

dubga

iTrader: (8)

I wouldn't worry too much about retaliation. If anything they are probably less likely to come back to your place because they expect you to be ready now.

I had some guys break into my apartment about 10 yrs ago. Took their time, had a snack and left the o.j. sitting out on the table. Took more clothes than anything else.

Two days later I am in a dept store buying new clothes, and a ***** fuka comes walking by me wearing my old clothes!!!! I told the sales attendant the situation, he calls the cops, and the cops show up and escort them out the door. Got some of my stuff back, but not all. They never came back to my place.

omarrakeen

iTrader: (2)

omg that really sucks! watch out man!.....true true!

tuffluck

iTrader: (4)

i'm in downtown dallas.

our patrol officer caught them after he got off work, chased them and called backup. got 2 of them but not the 3rd (and 4th i think). they watched the video back and only saw 2 people, yet my amp rack and head unit were gone. 2 guys can carry one sub each, so where did the rest of the other stuff go...

they are already out of jail today...

OSU Football Fan

iTrader: (23)

I know it's wrong to laugh about someone elses misfortune.
But I couldn't help myself when I read this part.
BTW, you must have awesome self control.
I would have wanted to tear the guy apart.


Question for the original poster,
Does your car have the built-in factory alarm?
If so, didn't it go off? I know that mine goes off even if I use
the key to unlock the door instead of using the key-fob.
I'm really sorry about what happened.
Once I had a faceplate stolen & I was so mad I couldn't see straight.

tuffluck

iTrader: (4)

i'm not really sure why, but my alarm has always gone off when it is on. what i mean is that it is so sensitive, that if you blow on the unit itself, the alarm goes off. turn it on and walk away from the car, the wind blows it goes off. in fact there is a millimeter of space that if you turn the sensitivity **** it won't go off unless you breath, otherwise once you go past that millimeter, just being on does the trick. i guess it's a faulty ****/alarm. i've never replaced it because my **** has always been concealed for 6 years. c'mon, i've done pretty good. ******* used alternator in my floorboard changed things.

you think i should change the motion sensor/alarm? or is it something else perhaps?

cfallsguy

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like moisture in the sensor, located under the passenger hatch panel. Just unplug it, pull it apart, let it dry out then put it back together and what i did was just put electrical tape around where the case comes together and its been fine since.

myk

iTrader: (4)

They call car alarms noise-makers, because that's all they do for people: make noise. As far as I know I'm the only person who ever reacts to car alarms, trying to see who might be getting violated. Everyone else just mopes about like it's nothing.

It sucks that you can't have a nice car, and/or a nice system and just enjoy what you've earned without having to worry about this crap. Meanwhile, people are mocking me for installing Monsoon tape decks into my 'Z and T/A, but I can guarantee that if anyone breaks into my cars it'll be for something other than a system-it's just too risky fellas...

tuffluck

iTrader: (4)

my equipment is 100% concealed and i always take my faceplate off. they broke in for the alternator in the back seat of my car, and as common sense will tell you, any thief that gets in to a car and isn't being chased, is going to search the rest of the car for other goodies. it was unfortunate in my case that someone wanted an ls1 alternator in the first place. luckily they dropped it in pursuit, so i was able to get my $200 immediate refund on the alternator after all. had they not been caught, i'd be out that money. sure, i'm out money on the stereo, but i bought all that stuff over 5 years ago. the $200 was last week, so that's immediate cash forfeiture.

build a system well and conceal it and i don't think you should have any regrets, even in situations like this. i surely don't. i see guys on this forum with amps galore on the rear deck, and honestly am for one surprised they haven't been jacked yet, but secondly i think if that were me and i did get my stuff stolen, i'd say shame was on me. i have slightly kicked myself that i left the alternator in the rear floorboard; i thought the day i did it, "should i leave this here? nah...who would want an ls1 alternator?"

tuffluck

iTrader: (4)

thanks for the advice. actually if you go look at the latch on your camaro door, where the latch meets the door itself (underneath the outer part of the latch, in the groove where your hand goes while you open the door) there is a small triangular hole on the right side of the latch. if you put a screwdriver in there about 3 inches, you can easily lift the locking mechanism and unlock the car. the alarm will never sound. this is precisely what the burglars did to my car. it's clean, doesn't cause the shock sensor to go off, and they didn't even have to break a window, granted it sure does concern me for future potential break-ins.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

If that's true on your car then there is something wrong with your alarm. The shock sensor isn't the only trigger for the alarm. It also triggers electrically when the door is opened and the door switch grounds (this is the same circuit that controls the courtesy lights and the RAP circuit). Tripping the door latch with a screwdriver is no different than opening it with the outside handle - it still grounds the switch when the door is pulled open and the alarm should sound.

BCKNBLK

iTrader: (3)

Ive had my old mr2 broken into,,, they busted the window took my brand new 300$ (10 yrs ago) 6x9s and they stole all my cds and my hubcaps,, crazy huh. It was at my apt. when i was gone away for the weekend.
The cops never caught the person,,, and I was super parinoid that it was someone who knew I was gone for the weekend but no one could know that.
I learned its always best to have good theft insurance,,, after that I bought an alarm but they dont really do much,, pretty much just an annoying gadget that rarely works.
Most thiefts that want to get by an alarm will set them off over and over again and lay back and watch in the middle of the night while you cant find anything wrong and get annoyed and just go to bed with the system disarmed.
Its true you feel violated, paranoid and ultra pissed. Hope you can try and move on,,, get your insurance to pay for it,,, think about it thats why you pay them so much freekin $$ every yr. Crappy thing is hopefully you have a low deductible or you will not get all back.
There is no method to thiefts and what they steal some just need anything they can sell to get an easy 20bucks for drugs.... hard addictions push ppl to cause crime. They prob just targeted your car because they heard the system pumpin or just assumed your type of car would have something in it.
sorry to hear

oddwraith

iTrader: (1)

Sorry to hear that man, makes you sick to hear of this stuff. Mine just got egged yesterday. I have a factory alarm on my car, does anyone know if turning it clockwise increases or decreases sensitivity?

tuffluck

iTrader: (4)

totally agree man...not only all of that, but even if your alarm goes off, that might just mean they move quicker about stealing your **** and break even more stuff inside your car in the process of being (more) careless. i do not think a factory alarm would have done anything to these guys while at 4am in the morning they are the only ones in sight except speed them up. hell, they may have not been caught had the alarm gone off and they moved faster.

my deductible, miraculously, is $200 for comprehensive. i think i originally over-valued all that i spent on the stereo. of the things i lost, one amp was used (about $250), the cd player was used ($200), one amp was new ($150), and the cap was new ($75). i made my own amp rack, so that was probably $30 i lost also on top of a few RCA cables they cut as well. so really they only took about $700 worth--i should get approximately $500 back from the insurance i think. i have state farm and they take the original MSRP for the items (even though most of those things are discontinued now), so even though i paid $250 used for the amp, ideally i should get $400+ for it since that is the MSRP, which is awesome.

and again i will say that after having the system for over 5 years, i definitely got my money's worth, so it's not as frustrating as if i had put in $10,000 6 months ago. the frustration really is just fixing everything more than anything...installing your own car stereo is a real bitch, and since it's been 5+ years, i've fallen out of the car audio rhealm and kind of forgotten how to do a lot of it. luckily, most of the wiring is still intact.

the subs/boxes were really expensive also, so glad i got them back. i think the subs were $250 and the boxes (together) were about $300 (both stealth boxes). it sucks and i can't believe they broke in for a used camaro alternator (like you said--$20 for drug money), but now i've learned a bit. oh well, life goes on. they fucked up my radio harness on the dash, i have to glue/weld that back in, and they scraped the paint a little on the rear valance probably dropping the amp rack on there and scraping it across, but nothing so extensive as to require body work. it will just be a pain to redo things. until i can move into my own garage, i've bought a $40 tape deck and going to hook up the remaining 2 components to the head unit so that i have some type of stereo.

also i'm about to be unemployed in 2 weeks so i can't exactly move into a nicer place right now. ugh, when it rains, it freakin' pours!!!

Meager

I feel you on the feeling violated.. I let my neighbors new farm hand come down to my place and borrow my weed eater.. I told him to just put it back in my building when he was done because I had some stuff to do in town..

when I got back everything was fine but I couldn't find the lock that I had left off so he could return my weed eater. I didn't think too much about it, figured I would find it the next day or just go get another one.. well, the next morning I went out to find the lock and I had been "GOT"

4 kicker 12's
2 head units
a dinosaur kicker amp that ruled!
2 fosgate amps
misc. door speakers, (memphis, clarion)

probably $4g and he never got caught, I hear his homeboy ride by my house with a thumpin stereo and there is nothing I can do about it. I live way out in the country (24mi to the nearest bank), so do not think this is just a city problem.

96ta

im not advocating any violence but buy a damn gun and a better alarm system. when i get around to mine im going to wire a train horn into my alarm system.