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I woke up at 7am this morning with the cops knocking at my door. My neighbors found that my car window had been smashed in and the new stereo ripped out. I'm madder than hell, this is the first nice stereo i've EVER owned and i was so proud of it. All the others were factory made and cheapies. It had a removable faceplate but who ever thinks to take that off, plus i live in a nice area of town and i just don't see that kind of thing that often.  

Anyhow, because the neighbors car had suspicious fingerprints on the back window they called the crime scene unit out there to dust for fingerprints on both his and my car. I spent the whole morning outside in the hot sun sweeping up glass and vacuuming all those shards from my car, cutting myself a few times. I had to shell out bucks to have a guy replace the window and put my old defective factory made radio back in there, thanks to my dads help (everything was just dangling and broken) The cops said it wasn't a clean job because they ripped out wires and basically leaned in the broken window and just yanked it all out..scratching up my car interior in the process. I don't have enough money to buy a new stereo (this old one won't play cd's)

I wish I had caught the SOB who did this. I was furious and now i'm just really sad about the whole thing, i work hard to make ends meet and what little i got someone has to take..not only that but i have to pay to clean up their mess. Another car in the complex was also broken into. I left a msg on my apt complex machine asking where this so called "courtesy patrol" is we never see and that they need to inform the complex to be more aware and vigilant about calling the cops for suspicious persons. No response from them.




Post Edited (09-10-05 16:57)

Damn, that sucks.

I know what it's like but I lost a lot more than just a deck.

When I was 19 I got a $1,200 loan from the bank to buy a killer stereo system for my car.  (I was a big time audiophile back then)

I bought a new deck, speakers, subwoofers, amplifiers etc...

I had the whole thing for about a week before it was stolen.
They took everything.
My friend Brian and an acquaintence of his I didn't really know well named Matt helped install it.

I even had an alarm and they went right through that as if it was never there.
Only someone who knew the interior of my car or had info on it could've done that.
I long suspected that it was that Matt guy who took it all but could never prove it.

So, I had to pay for a whole year on that loan for a stereo I no longer owned.

By the way, I recently bought a new deck for my car from Crutchfield and it has that removable face.  If I'm going to be out of my car for more that 1/2 hour, it goes with me.



Post Edited (09-10-05 17:26)

I too had my car stereo taken years ago. It was in my old Nissan and I had just replaced the factory tape deck and radio with a new CD player. Then one night while I slept in my nice suburbian neighborhood, some individual just opened my unlocked car, snipped a few wires and had themselves a new stereo. They didn't even bother the 75 CD case filled with CDs in the back seat. Thank god for that. I would have been furious then, but all they really took was my Stone Temple Pilots Cd (Purple for you STP-philes out there) and the deck. I got insurance back on it +$50 since my steroe only cost $75 and they gave me back $125, so I guess I came out on top. I didn't replace the stereo because I went out that day and  bought a bunch of movies instead. Anyways, the moral is that private property has led to a division of classes and a rise in material goods, driving some people to sacrifice their morals for cool stuff. I think of it as unintended charity. But as always, what goes around comes around.

Car alarms can easily be disabled, regardless of what the manufacturer says. If there was any kind of warning label informing the thief that there was an alarm, it makes it even easier for them.

The even worse part is that the pawn shop where they most likely took it, or flea market dealer, did not give them much. Not that I am sorry that they did not get much, but it does not help that someone took your $1200 system and probably got $50-100 for it; and the fence damn well knew that it was stolen.

I am sorry to hear about that ASH. It is bad enough to have the stereo stolen, but to have to make payments on a stolen stereo sucks.

I am so sorry to hear of this Susan. It is upsetting when someone is victimized. It is particularly upsetting when, in your situation, they have had something stolen which they put so much effort into in order to acquire it, and it is taken from them in short order. I hope your window was at least covered. Have you been able to get the window repaired?

Sorry to hear that Susan.  Here's a couple of quick points:

1. That CSU found prints on the OUTSIDE of your car means nothing.  When recovering prints at scenes like this, we always cautioned owners to not get their hopes up that such prints were going to be helpful.  Prints on the outside could be placed by anybody, anywhere.  The defense could argue that they leaned against a car at Walmart to tie their shoe, or saw the car and thought it was a friends an peeked inside to see, etc, etc.  Reasonable doubt.

But, finding such prints COULD help them 'crack' a suspect, if they are not that savvy.  Lawyers sometimes think of excuses like that, scared kids who broke into a car and got caught may not.  So they could be helpful.  Just don't pin all your hopes on recovered prints.

Prints from the INSIDE of the car are a whole different kettle of worms.

2. In my state, there is a Victim's and Witness Advocate Program (which I think is funded by federal grants so probably exists in other states as well).  The cops who took the report should have told you about it, but if not, ask.  They may help you recover some of your losses such as the repair of your window.  I'm not sure about how all of that works with insurance/no insurance, but if the jurisdiction in which you live has the program, they can tell you.  When you talk to them, have the police report handy, or even have a copy available for them (you DID get a copy of the report, right?  If not, go get one, you have a right to it).

3. My guess?  Probably kids more interested in being rebellious, damaging property and the like than they really wanted your stereo.  This would mean they'll likely never get caught, even if good prints were recovered (AFIS systems don't have juveniles in them, so without a possible suspect, the print is not that helpful).  Could have been a druggie needing quick cash, but I'd think if you live in a nicer part of town this is less likely; car break-ins are usually done 'close to home.'  That's why I'd think kids...rich or mid class spoiled kids with too much time on their hands and parents that probably won't notice that new radio in their car.

4. My own anecdote: my wife had her car broken into a couple of years ago and all that was stolen was this stupid red towel (not even a nice towel). It was the about the dumbest thing, to bust the window out of a car to steal a red towel.  But what was even worse, the cop who took the report failed to notice the red towel lying on the ground just around the corner from where her car had been parked!  Our speculation is that they thought it was a 'nice' jacket of some sort and upon realizing it was a towel just dropped it.

I got my window repaired, but I don't have full coverage so that expense came out of MY pocket. My car is over 5 years old, paid in full and I'm a good driver. Therefore liability and uninsured motorist are actually more sensible. I never expected to have any problems in this complex because the covered parking is VERY well lit, surrounded by apartments as it's in the center of the complex (not at the back of the building) and I can see it from my window. Better my car robbed than my apartment i guess. Luckily my neighbors seem to watch out for me and i live on the second floor.

Ulthar - they got no prints from my car, they got it from my neighbors car because he just bought a brand new SUV and keeps it washed, he saw these prints on the back windshield that were smaller than their hands. Also there was a ridgemark as if someone was cupping their hands against the glass and looking in. If they left prints on my car it was probably on the window they smashed in. The cop said often they wear gloves but the neighbors car looked likely to have been them so he called the crime scene tech. They're pretty vigilant in my area of town (most places don't ever call out the crime scene guys and these cops are always on the ball and we have a very low crime rate)

I don't know if they were kids, they didn't take any of my CDs or rummage through my car (i had nothing visible that anyone would want to take except the sunshade)  They even left the CD that was in the player at the time on my car seat. I would never buy a $1500 car stereo. For me this was movin' on up from factory made (plus the last one crapped out). I hooked up the original stereo to my car today, the radio works, the cd player doesn't. But it may not last long since the system kept spazzing out when i had it.  It's sad, i was so excited when i got the new stereo early this year and all that enthusiasm gone.

maybe i'd be better off getting a cheapass radio and finding an MP3 hookup to connect to it. I wouldn't mind a radio you could remove completely but i heard those are hard to find.

It's close to midnight, i just got home as i've been out all day. I'm paranoid, i keep wanting to look outside and check up on my car because i'm afraid someone is giong to break in it again.

Sorry to hear that Susan. I remember a couple of years ago someone tried to rob a pair a boots I just bought from the store they were still in the bag in everything. they tired to just grab it and run. Needless to say we got into a fight and I still have those boots.(http://www.smileys.ws/sm/grinning/00000003.gif)

So if you need rock and roll rich to do some "dirty deeds done dirty cheap" I will found out who stole it and bring them to JUSTICE(http://www.websmileys.com/sm/violent/sterb266.gif)

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Most of all I hate dancing then work, exercise, people,stupid people

Bum...

That certainly is a bugger.  Sorry to hear it.  People who do that are such scum...

Our house was broken into 3 times in one and a half years a while back, and finally we have an alarm system and pretty much no way of getting into the house without making alot of noise breaking locks or windows.

The first time they stole just the usual: TV, VCR etc.

The second time my dad walked in on the guy, who bolted out the window and over the fence.  He was wearing a suit, which we found odd, but apparently they go up to your door and pretend to be a legitimate person [hence the suit] and if you aren't home they go for it.  This particular robber was funny though, because he had a bag of things he was stealing from our house, and it was full of cans of Coca-cola and lollipops.  Wierd...

Third time I had the pleasure of walking in on the guy.  Since I got home early from school and rode my bike I went in the back door [to park my bike] to see that our back sliding door had been taken off.  I proceed to get annoyed and walk in to find the house a bit of a mess, with our couch cushions all over the place and the TV and stuff missing.  Thinking 'oh s**t we've been robbed again' I was about to go to the phone when I hear a noise at the front of the house.  I look down the hallway to see our friendly robber looking out our front door [with his back to me, since I came in the back way].  At this point I hid off to the side out of sight, and started thinking 'f**k f**k f**k f**k!'  

I probably did a really stupid thing next, but I wasn't about to let some son of a b***h steal our stuff, so I pop into his sight and start shouting at him to get the f**k out of my house, hoping he'd be like the last guy and bugger off.   He looked up, grabbed a bag he had just filled with some of our things, and went to go out the door.  I gave chase and he turned back and tried to shut the screen door on me to stop me from getting to him.  I get a foot through the door and now we are on either side of the screen door pushing each other back.  At this stage there was lots of shouting and swearing.  He starts yelling at me that he has a knife, I yell at him to get the f**k out, and to show me this knife.  He spits at me through the door, and tries looking through our bags 'to show me his knife', I reach down to the floor and I grab a solid wooden door stop which was actually an old carving tool of some sort, basically a wooden block with a handle, and try and reach around the door and clock him over the head with it.

After what seemed like ages, but wouldn't have been very long at all, I decide to go for the phone nearby, to which he runs off.  I give chase again, block in hand, and chase him to his car nearby.  At this stage he pulls out what seemed to be a flick knife and common sense hits in and I back off, still shouting at him.  All the while cars are driving past, doing nothing, and he gets in the car, with the doors locked, while I try and get to the other side of the car and get one of our bags out of the side door.  He drives off, I try and smash his back windshield with the block, but I don't achieve anything, and I take down his number plate and model of car.

Later on, after talking to the police and giving them the plate details and descriptions, they find the guy, arrest him and his girlfriend for having a garage full of stolen goods [which coincidentally had things from a friend of ours who was robbed a few weeks previously] and he gets some jail time, I think a year or so.  He got out a couple of years ago, and the police gave me a call to let me know.

Everynow and then I'll think about all the things I could have or should have done differently, conisdering the fact that I could have broken one of his windows instead of going for the stronger rear one, or keeping my cool and going to get my brother's baseball bat first.  But oh well, these things can't be changed now I guess.

Just be thankful they didn't rob your car while you were still in it.  It is not something I'd like to do again without some sort of large pole, or club of some sort.

Anyway, I hope it all works out: either they get the scum, or your luck improves in other areas.

Dean - that would scare me. (someone breaking into my place). Luckily i don't have easy access like a sliding back door although i'm sure someone could easily kick in my front door which is why i got an intrusion alarm.  I can't believe you caught the guy, you're lucky i guess that he wasn't armed or something. These days people seem to kill you for the sport of it.  My sister in law used to hang a machette in her living from over the wall. She always said if she had to deal with someone that it would be the most intimidating weapon. ;-)

I think I posted about this before, but it will be 4 years on Sept. 21 that someone broke in and robbed.

My wife is a dental assistant and only worked until noon on Fridays back then. Well she comes home and notices from the road that our porch light is on and the flag we had on the door was missing. Our garage is on the end of the house and you have to turn up into it.  When she went down the drive she saw the garage open and the door into the house was open. She backed out and went to a neighbors and called me at work.

She and the neighbor went back to the house after calling the law. They had taken our TV,  stereo, DVD player, VCR, my computer, and the washer and dryer. The deputy that came out figured they must have been setting up house keeping somewhere.  

Anyway they had kicked in the front door went through the house, opened the garage, backed a truck in and started loading up.  My wife had loaded the washer that morning intending on running it when she came home and the thieves unloaded the laundry and threw it on the floor. They shut off the water to the washer , but one of the hoses wouldn't unscrew from the faucet so  they hunted for knife in the kitchen and cut it.

Thank goodness State Farm was so nice about getting everything replaced.  We never heard anything about the stuff being found.

The bad thing about this kind of stuff is how paranoid it makes you, just thinking about strangers coming in going through your stuff.  My daughter was still in high school and for about a month she would go to a friends after school and wait for me to come home and call her before she would come back to the house.

It really wants to make you want to strangle the bastards.

trek - that's awful. I guess its always a good thing she didn't walk in on them, as much as we all want to it can put you in danger and material things aren't worth your life. I think i'd be really worried about my computer being stolen in todays world of identity theft and all that. I guess i've always done without renters insurance simply because i never had much of value, because "things" can be replaced with time. I'd be more devistated with the loss or destruction of sentimental things that might occur in a fire. I guess i should look into it, i don't know how much it costs and i wonder if my apt would even be at risk. But after my car, i guess you never know.

It does make you paranoid, i came home last nite and spent an hour just staring outside at my car through the window in a dark room. Even though i know a stranger did it and they aren't going to come back and break in it again or break my window just because i got it fixed, I can't help but take it personally.

"I don't have full coverage so that expense came out of MY pocket"

That's why you need to check with the Victim's Advocate in your jurisdiction.  They might be able to help you recover that cost.

The point is, *YOU* should not have to pay insurance premiums against the theft of your own property.  The Victim's Advocate program was set up to help avoid this, I THINK.  Their money comes from grants and fines (so in part, the criminals pay for it).

It's worth checking into.  All it will take is a phone call; probably the best start is the cop who took your report.

That's what bothered me most about the computer, all the personal stuff like pictures and letters.

We have replacement cost on our home owners policy, so I actually ended up with better stuff than I had. It still doesn't make up for the cost on your nerves though.

ulthar - the cop gave me a form that had information, part of the info was for the Victim's Advocate thing but it was in relation to domestic violence and victims of violent crimes involving aggrivated assault. Maybe i should beat myself over the head.

Susan,

I'm sorry this happened as well. I know how it feels, as my car was broken into a few years ago. If it makes you feel any better, you should be comforted that the police at least tried to find the culprits. I lived in a very quiet neighborhood; there hasn't been a home burglary for over 10 years in my town, if that lets you know just how quiet. Anyway, I had a small Mitsubishi pickup, and one morning I went outside to drive to work and saw that my taillights were missing. I then found that the side window was busted out and the radio was gone as well. I called the police, and they filled out a report but let me know that they weren't going to even look for the thief because it would be hard (or some equally lame excuse). I mean, Mitsubishi pickups were fairly common (low riders in the area used them), but all they needed to do was ask at the two body shops in town about whether anyone had come in with a pickup needing two taillights. It was pretty obvious that the thief was mainly after the lights and took the radio as an afterthought.

It wasn't so bad for me as I still had full coverage, so insurance paid for everything. Plus, the radio was older than the pickup, and it had been cheap when I bought it. After that, I got a radio with a removable face and used that until I traded the car in a couple of years later.

Susan wrote:

> ulthar - the cop gave me a form that had information, part of
> the info was for the Victim's Advocate thing but it was in
> relation to domestic violence and victims of violent crimes
> involving aggrivated assault. Maybe i should beat myself over
> the head.
>

Call 'em.  Violent crime stuff is certainly the focus, but they do MUCH more than that.  Like I said, it won't hurt to make a phone call.  Ultimately your choice, tho...there's certainly something to be said for moving-on.

Anyway, best of luck, and I'm sure glad that you WEREN'T hurt.

That victims thing that ulthar mentioned is a pretty good idea.  I wonder if they have something like that over here [its good to keep in mind if something bad does happen]

>>>I can't believe you caught the guy, you're lucky i guess that he wasn't armed or something.

I didn't catch the guy, the police did, after he pulled what seemed to be a knife I backed right off and just proceeded to abuse him.  Like someone said, I'm not about to risk my life for things, especially since we got nicer stuff after the insurance.  But I'm certainly not about to give up my posessions without some sort of fight...

Anyway, I hope things work out ok, it took a while for me to stop being a little nervous everytime I got home early before anyone else, but you'll move on: no sense in living in fear!

Oh and Derf, a similar thing happened to a friend of mine as well, but they stole his headlight globes as well as tail lights, and didn't actually make any effort to steal anything from the rest of the car.  It seems really really silly for something like that to happen, I mean, how much do they cost anyway??

Some people steal the most unusual things sometimes...

Sorry to hear that you had to endure this Susan. I hope everything turns out fine for you in the end.

Susan, I'm so sorry. Especially because of the fact that you say you live in a decent area. I live in a fairly seedy part of town and have only been broken into once, in 1985. I was 9 1/2 at the time and it really bothered me, especially because of the fact that they stole our TV (a great Sony Trinitron that we had had for over 6 years, and that we probably would have had another 5-7 years) and VCR. Then in 1996 less than a week after I turned 20 I was mugged by 3 teenagers. Luckily I was broke (but had just gone shopping), but they did hurt my arm and my head.

maybe they need to invent a radio that gives out a strong electrical shock to anyone who tries to forcefully remove it ..then sprays mace in their eyes  ;-)

I had my truck broken into and the radio stolen late last year.  Basically the same MO as what happened to Susan, though they popped the lock rather than smashing in the window.  I had gotten lazy and not taken the faceplate with me.  Since I was looking to buy a house, I didn't want to go through the insurance company and have them jack up my rates.  Door was $600, radio another $200.  Now I always take the faceplate with me.  And I use The Club.

Anyone remember the Mr. Bean episode where he would take his steering wheel off when he left the car as a security measure?

I feel for ya, Susan.
Last year, my old 85 Olds was stolen. The cops found it, and caught a clown who was with the creep who stole it, when it ran out of gas at a station.
Cost about $900 to get it back to running.
Sheesh!
Thw windows were open, the car was literaly 10 feet away from my mom's room...i bearly woke up enought to bear some class breaking, but it sounded far away, so i thought it was some one breaking a bottle down the street.
The disbelief when i went out next morning,to see...nothing....realy blew my tiny mind.
Now i use a bar on the wheel, and a cable and lock, to at least make if harder if anyone tries agine.
That and the motion sensor lights.
But a dog...man, i wish i had a dog.
Named " Devourer of  Louts!" Ya know, Rotties are realy nice dogs.....

Flangepart wrote:

>The cops found it, and
> caught a clown who was with the creep who stole it, when it ran
> out of gas at a station.


An actual clown???

raj wrote:

 Now I always take the faceplate with
> me.  And I use The Club.

I had a friend in college whose car was broken into and all the thief stole was her Club, which was locked onto the steering wheel. So much for security...

dean wrote:

> Flangepart wrote:
>
> >The cops found it, and
> > caught a clown who was with the creep who stole it, when it
> ran
> > out of gas at a station.
>
>
> An actual clown???
>

AT A STATION (gas station??)?

Ass clown?

Clowns are evil.

Your both right!
Ass clown, and evil! True he was sans rubber nose and paint, but he had the spirit for it.
When i got to the scene, the joker started saying "Hey, i din't do anything!" and the like. He saw my white van, and thought i was a cop, maby.
When he realised i wasen't, he just kept his face hidden, and tried to avoid looking at me.
Ass clown indeed.