Vehicle Break-in

[Ash]

Today was a bad day for me.  

It started off good enough.
I went and donated plasma and got $50 for sitting there with a needle in my arm for an hour.
After that, I had to hurry home to get ready for my cousin Heather's wedding.
I parked my car in the parkade that's attached to the building I live in and locked the doors.

I walked in my apt. door at approximately 1:45 pm and was in my place for exactly 35 minutes until I walked out the door at 2:20 pm.
Just long enough to take a quick shower, change into my dress clothes and grab a sandwich.

When I walked up to my car, I looked through the window and noticed the knob was up, the one that indicates whether the door is locked or not.
I thought to myself, "What the hell?  I know I locked that when I got out of the car."

I opened the door and the first thing I noticed was a ton of trash on the passenger side floor.
Then my eyes drifted to the center console and I saw that not only had my stereo been yanked out, but half the plastic dash panelling had been ripped out too.  

In the 35 minutes I had been in my apartment, some jerkoff broke into my car and stole my detachable face CD player! 
In broad daylight!

The trash was from a canvas garbage receptacle I hung over the right side of the gearshift.  I don't like to throw my trash out the window like some people do so I used it instead.
It had been pretty full, so the thief dumped all the trash in it onto the passenger side floor and put the stolen CD player inside of it.  (I assume that's what he did)
He took both the player and the canvas bag.

I looked at my driver's side door lock and it had obviously been jimmied with a screwdriver.
It was completely destroyed.
The door still locks, but I can't unlock it with the key.  Now I have to go in from the passenger side and reach over to the driver's side to unlock it.
And I have to pay a visit to the local junkyard to get a new door handle & lock.  

----------------------------------------------------

My CD player was a detachable face model and I'm almost fanatical when it comes to making sure I remove it and take it inside with me whenever I leave the car.
This one time, I didn't.
I figured that I was gonna be inside for only a half hour or so, and because it was daytime and the car was locked up tight, no one would steal it.

I was wrong.

What are the odds that the one single time I've ever left the faceplate in the dash, in the middle of the day when I was only away from my car for a short period of time, some f**khead breaks into my car and steals it!?

I can be thankful that they didn't break any of the windows.
It isn't cheap to replace a broken window and I'd rather pay $25 for a used door handle and lock than $300-$400 for a new window.

Needless to say, I've been in a crappy mood all day since it happened.
And I didn't make it to the wedding.

I waited for almost three hours before a cop showed up to take my report.
I did make it to the wedding reception though.

----------------------------------------

Boy, what I wouldn't give to have caught that son of a b***h in the act.
I probably would've thrown him over the parkade's 4th level balcony!
(ok, I wouldn't really do that, but it sure feels good to imagine my doing it!)

Or beat him within an inch of his life.

Oh well, I'll trust in karma to make sure he gets what he deserves.
What comes around goes around.  He'll get his someday.

How about you?
Ever had your car burglarized?

[Susan]

been there, done that. it sucks

Could be worse. This past week someone I know was at home and heard a knock at the door, she had a friend in town and they were about to go shopping. They didn't recognize the person through the peephole so they didn't answer.

Then they heard a loud banging and saw he had a ramming tool like the cops use. The door busted in and they ran and called 911 screaming at him that they had the cops on the phone. After apartment breakins here i learned that if someone knocks on my door who isn't holding a clipboard i HAVE to say 'go away' or 'no solicitors' just so they won't think the apartment is empty and try to break in.

To this day i hope the thug who stole my radio got his

[Andrew]

Ash, that really, really sucks.  Years ago, the first night we stayed at our new place in DC, my 69 Camaro had its rally rims stolen off of it.  Luckily, I had good hood locks so they couldn't get to the really expensive stuff.

Still, to have caught them in the act, hopefully as I was heading to softball practice with my bat.

Another time, some Marines did catch a guy who was stealing the alternator off of a Marine's car.  I was the Duty NCO, so I got involved with it (calling the police, calling the SgtMaj, logging the info).  They had bloodied the guy up some when they got him.  Couple of punches to the face and stomach, nothing too major, but the thief had some pain to remember from the experience.

We get constant knocks at the door here.  If I open the door, I'm ready for whatever could possibly happen.

[dean]

That's a bugger Ash.  It's Murphy's law that it happens when you keep your head unit in...

Anyways, someone tried to get into my car a while ago.  I didn't even notice, but my car lock had been jimmied slightly but not broken into; someone must have tried but failed, thankfully enough.

[Ash]

I keep thinking about what I'd do to the thief if I caught him...

If I could get away with it, I'd take him to a remote location in the middle of nowhere and have a friend hold him down while I chopped off his dominant hand with a meat cleaver.

I'd take pleasure in it too!

I would have him tied up with rope and get real close to him, so he could feel my breath on his face as I spoke.
After I messed with his mind and made him think I'm his friend, I would suddenly take out a razor sharp meat cleaver and chop off his hand at the wrist!

I would yell, "You like to steal motherf***er?!  Huh!?  How do you like this!?"  CHOP!!




(ok...I wouldn't really do this...but it sure feels good to imagine doing it!   )

[RCMerchant]

 Holy Sh!t ,Ash!  You should write movies for Coppalla! One of those crazy gangster fliks! 
I know it's not at all funny,(I've had my old house broke into...stole money,a Playstation...) and I dream about f#ckin'the shmuck up...but tha'ts real graphic!!! 

[Derf]

Sorry to hear about this, Ash. I, too, have experienced this. My town is a little hick farming town, with no crime to speak of. I was driving a little Mitsubishi pickup at the time, a vehicle that was popular with the lowrider crowd because it was reliable, cheap, and easy to modify. Apparently, someone needed some new tail lights and didn't want to spend the money on them, so he just took mine. Then, for good measure, he broke out my window and stole my stereo, which was worthless anyway. Insurance covered it all, but the feeling of violation still occasionally crops up (this happened about 10 years ago). I feel for you, man.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Sucks to hear that Ash.  I can't begin to image how p**sed I would be if someone were to break into one of my cars.  Luckily I live in a rural area with little crime, except for the occasional drunken fistfight. 

I'm curious, did you report it to the police?  I doubt it would help much, just wondering. *Note - Missed that part first time reading the post.  Whoops.*

[Allhallowsday]

I'm curious, did you report it to the police?  I doubt it would help much, just wondering.

Ash wrote he waited three hours for a cop to show up to take a report... 

Well, I can commiserate with you Ash.  I had items stolen from my car years ago in Manhattan, and another time caught someone stealing money out of a friend's car.  Maybe it is better you didn't catch the thief, he might have had a knife or a gun.  Lots of these lowlife punks don't value their own lives, let alone your property, and do lots of way stupid stuff including half-ass cowardly murder. 

[RCMerchant]

I keep thinking about what I'd do to the thief if I caught him...

If I could get away with it, I'd take him to a remote location in the middle of nowhere and have a friend hold him down while I chopped off his dominant hand with a meat cleaver.

I'd take pleasure in it too!

I would have him tied up with rope and get real close to him, so he could feel my breath on his face as I spoke.
After I messed with his mind and made him think I'm his friend, I would suddenly take out a razor sharp meat cleaver and chop off his hand at the wrist!

I would yell, "You like to steal motherf***er?!  Huh!?  How do you like this!?"  CHOP!!




(ok...I wouldn't really do this...but it sure feels good to imagine doing it!   )

Oh, man! You edited it! I liked the more graphic version better. It really would make a good movie scene! 

[Ash]

Yeah...I felt it was a bit too psychopathic.  Making the guy cauterize his own stump in hot coals was pretty bad.

That's just the tip of the iceberg dude...

My buddy Chris & I used to come up with the most horrifying torture methods.
We always joked that if anyone ever heard us talking about it, they would think we were crazy.

We're really not though.  We just have twisted imaginations. 

One method we came up with involved a 100 foot heavy duty chain with a metal hook on the end of it. 
Just like this one:


The opposite end of the chain was attached to the back of a Ford Mustang muscle car.
Can you guess what our idea was?

[RCMerchant]

 I have a twisted imagination too. It helps when I draw twisted pictures. I can imagine a number of things to do with a logging chain,a hook, a muscle car,and some evil scumbag...!    Let's just put it this way...Preperation H  would not help.

[trekgeezer]

Our house was broken into back in 2001. They took the usual stuff; stereo, tv , my computer, and the washer and dryer of all things.  They just came up and kicked the door in, went around to the garage and opened it and backed a truck in and loaded it up.

They did throw the laundry my wife had loaded that morning out of the washer. It was sorta funny when the deputy came to make the report and asked my wife, "When did you last see the dryer?"

We've always had an idea that it was a neighbor's kids friends who took the stuff.  I think it was defiinitely someone who had been in the house before.

I doubt if the cops will be able to do anything about it Ash, I know we've never heard anything from our stuff.  Lucky for me I had replacement cost on my insurance, I actually ended up with an upgrade to all my electronics. 

I had repaired that dryer twice, so I always hoped that it would short and burn the bastard's house down.  The personal violation is worst thing about someone doing this to you.

[ulthar]

Ash,

Sorry to hear that.  I've had a car broken into twice - well, once me and once my wife.

The first time, when MY car was broken into, they stole a gold wedding ring out of the glove box and tried to yank out the radio - but did not get it.  It was a fairly high dollar Pioneer (at the time) with NO face plate on it, but they left it hanging bythe wires.  The frustrating thing about this to me was that I called the cops, just to file the report for 'statistics' purposes, and the cop was totally lazy.  I could see fingerprints on the window where they forced the window down, but he said "we can't get fingerprints off this car."  Grrrrr.

By the way, I was staying that night at an ex-girlfriends new apartment - the first time I stayed with her after I kicked her out from MY place....I never stayed with her again.   

The other time, when my wife's car was broken into, all they took was a stupid old red towell she had laying on the seat.  And they dropped it a hundred yards away.  The cop did not notice it, even though he had to drive right by it, but my wife found it.  They broke the window on her car to get that towell.  Very strange.

Funny inside cop story about a car break-in:  When I was working Crime Scenes, we answered a call to process a car for prints after a break in.  The lady went on and on about prints visible on the window, but as the breakin had occured the DAY BEFORE, my buddy was trying to explain to her that any prints we got would be useless.

She said she could see them and they looked the same.  He proceeded to ask her how she could possibly testify that they were the same fingerprints visible the day before (she had driven the car home, and parked it on the street), and he was being more than a little sarcastic.

Until she told him she had been a fingerprint examiner for the FBI for 12 years, and yes she could, in fact, testify that those were the same fingerprints that were on her car after the break-in.

[Torgo]

I've been fortunate in that I've never had my car broken into so far in my lifetime.

But I've known plenty of people who have and I can say that I feel most sorry for anyone that has any kind of theft happen to them.

I've also been lucky in that my house and any previous dwellings (since I've lived on my own for 10 years) have been broke into as well. I've got dead bolts on both of the doors to my house and I'm in a highly visible location so I doubt that anyone would try that to me at home.