Not very bright car thieves

Mailman

Some fine upstanding citizens tried to steal one of my cars last night.

Bent the door frame and then proceeded to rip the guts out of the steering column.
Made a right mess.

Obviously they laboured for quite a while on this before they eventually gave up.
They were never going to get it going as there isn't actually any battery in that car but they never bothered to look. I would have thought that a dead digital clock and no interior lights would have been a giveaway sign to any prospective criminal but there you go.
The brakes aren't working well on this car either so they would have killed themselves if they went joyriding in it.

It was going to be a car that I was going to tidy up. Now I have to re-evaluate.

John2002

bastards

DMC

Ooh. No good, sorry to hear that.

Whereabouts in this fair isle are you?

Mailman

D15 which has more than it's fair share of scumbags.

Not all that worried about it. It's an annoyance.

Posted because of the dimness of the thieves rather than looking to share my bad experiences with others.

hussey

I used to work in a car product shop

and one thing I learned it that 80-90% of all car crime happen out of teh blue .. as in knackers walk down the street see a car and if it has no visible locks/alarm they go for it

things like Stoplock and such are there more for a deterent.

as what would you rather do .. spend 10mins trying to break one of those or 2mins breaking into something that has no lock??


also .. those chains around the steering wheels are not the mai west either .. as we used to hear a lot from customers whose car was broken into and the thief then seen the lock .. did a legger and left a broken window etc

DMC

Originally posted by Mailman
D15 which has more than it's fair share of scumbags.

I'm in D7, and there has been a spate of thefts recently. According to the guards, they come over from Finglas, although we to have our fair share of local nasties anyway....

Originally posted by husseyalso .. those chains around the steering wheels are not the mai west either .. as we used to hear a lot from customers whose car was broken into and the thief then seen the lock .. did a legger and left a broken window etc

I have a chain around my steering wheel, but the reason I got that instead of any other steering lock is, try getting a bolt cutter through that. The guards also me that better to have a chain tied around the steering wheel, pedals and front seat than some steering or gear/handbrake locks, as they can be broken in a matter of seconds. Nothing has happened yet to mine, touch wood. But I would suffer a broken window more than the whole car being stolen....

Mailman

The car was parked in an apartment complex so it was off street.

It was targetted because it was an japanese car so they figured it was an easy mark and if they had succeeded in stealing it I'm sure I would have seen it burnt out on the side of the road after they had had their fun on my way to work this morning.
Burnt out cars on the side of the road are a regular sight in Blanchardstown.

Thankfully as more cars come fitted with factory fitted immobilisers car theft becomes less common but other workmate who lives in a really rough area says that that just makes the local scum break into your house to steal the keys.

Workmate who lives not far from me was telling me that he had a steering lock on his Civic and he came out one morning to find it in the middle of the garden after locals tried unsuccessfully to steal his car.

I've got a really heavy duty chain and pad lock on my good car and that has never been interferred with. I was going to buy a lock for the other one last Friday but the lock I saw wasn't strong enough so I decided to hold off and look for a good one like the one on my good car.

Wook

D15 sometimes does look like a warzone with the burned out cars.
You should make this car available to joyride and take over with remote control , drive into a lake with the doors locked or something.
Really hate those joyriders who just torch the car after they had some fun with it.

hussey

Originally posted by DMC

The guards also me that better to have a chain tied around the steering wheel, pedals and front seat than some steering or gear/handbrake locks, as they can be broken in a matter of seconds.

they are a joke .. if you have a loose gear knob it taken be taken off with in seconds, we used to only recommend these to go with other locks.

chains are Very good .. but the problem is that if it's not visible then you risk the window being smashed

Imposter

What about leaving the door of the car wide open (obviously not outside your house) and lying in wait with a baseball bat!

pyramid man

Originally posted by hussey
I used to work in a car product shop

and one thing I learned it that 80-90% of all car crime happen out of teh blue .. as in knackers walk down the street see a car and if it has no visible locks/alarm they go for it

things like Stoplock and such are there more for a deterent.

as what would you rather do .. spend 10mins trying to break one of those or 2mins breaking into something that has no lock??


also .. those chains around the steering wheels are not the mai west either .. as we used to hear a lot from customers whose car was broken into and the thief then seen the lock .. did a legger and left a broken window etc

sorry to braek it to you but these tools help the burgler to break the steering lock leaving easier driving of said stolen car

hussey

Originally posted by pyramid man
these tools

??

what tools?if you mean the stoplock .. please explain

as I said they are more there for a deterent

Mailman

A standard steering lock can be considered to be a blunt crow bar/lever and thieves use it for this purpose.
Workmate explained how stoplock was used to break the steering column lock on his CRX.

Seems to me that everyone I know up here in Dublin has been affected by car theft\vandalism of one sort or another.

hussey

fair enough point taken

but my point still stands, 80-90% of thefts are done on the spot

and a stoplock will deter this 80-90%

***

yeah car crime is something shocking!!

Peace

Ok, so hit me with it...whats the best way to protect your car against the scum....??

Imposter

Originally posted by hussey
yeah car crime is something shocking!!

IMO the biggest problem with car crime is the guards. My Ex got her car broken into 3 Sundays in the space of a month in an attempt to steal the radio. They never got the radio out but they then proceeded to damage the steering column.
On mentioning, in the cop-shop the second time, that maybe hiding some Sunday evening in the locked underground garage, to wait for them to arrive again resulted in us getting laughed out of the cop-shop.

Add that to similar reactions when bicycles were stolen from the same place and even when there was a witness the lazy donut eating sods wouldn't bother coming over to interview them.

And then they wonder why people do these things!
Maybe if there was a remote chance of them getting caught and dealt with properly they might think again about doing it, or maybe not.

Peace

Like the man said in Pulp Fiction - "It would be worth them doing it if i could just catch him doing it..."


But then you're the one up in court for assault. Go figure.

mike65

Originally posted by Peace
Ok, so hit me with it...whats the best way to protect your car against the scum....??

I remember a court case which arose from some guy wiring his motor
with a charge of a few hundred volts which caused some old dear to have a heart attack as she lent against the side of it. The ebst way to protect your car is to garage it, but then not all of us have such
luxuries....oh yeah flame throwers underneath the car work quite well in Cape Town I hear!

Mike.

Seth Brundle

I remember seeing a car (a newish escort) dumped in wasteground near clontarf dart station. I told the polis on my way home about it and the fact that it would probably end up getting butnt out if left there. The guard on duty assured me that he would track down the owner via the reg plate and get it sorted.
Three days later the car was burned out!
The gardai have 'better things to do' than deal with crime!

Mailman

Gardai came but weren't very interested.
No interest in taking prints.
Turns out thief tried to break into Starlet a couple of metres away after failing to steal my car.
Neighbour chased him away and got a view of him.
Gardai still not particularly interested.

They said that even if they did catch him "he wouldn't go to jail so what's the point".

unkel

Originally posted by Mailman
as there isn't actually any battery in that car

You should have handed them over a working battery and installed it for them...

Originally posted by Mailman

The brakes aren't working well on this car either so they would have killed themselves if they went joyriding in it.

and let nature take it's course :cool:

Captain Trips

Got my car nicked once. Asked the gardai (who did what they could but TBH it wasn't totally surprising that it didn;'t turn up (ever!) and the insruance co paid up in 2 weeks.

They said that basically use some sort of deterrant like a wheel lock. Yeah, it only takes 90 secs or whatever to remove it, but basically if there are two cars and a passing knacker wants to spin around, he'll go for the one without any obvious deterrant. I use the undeniably **** T-bar steering lock. Yeah it's ****, but I park next to someone who doesn't have any.

Now unless it's some sort of secret grand theft initiating ritual, I am willing to bet the thief would go for a car where effort and time was minimal.

Victor

Originally posted by unkel
and let nature take it's course :cool:

So they fail to brake and someone down?

ondafly

im living in d15 also - mums car was broken into in our driveway. car was fully alarmed, whole drive way lights up when you walk in, and yet they didnt give a toss, smashed the window and stole a rubbish car stereo and 1 daniel o'donnel CD. Neighbour's 2 cars were stolen on the same night 1 month before. Neighbours 3 doors up have had their car stolen 3 times ! All these cars had alarms etc. The guards don't care - they spend more time driving up and down the navan road giving out speeding offences for 31mph drivers - and I have never ever seen a patrol car or guard on the beat , on my road. ever !

Also chain around the steering wheel attached to the seat aint too good, friend with a CR-X did this, seat was just unbolted to remove the chain.

and speaking of burnt out cars - a black nissan sunny was half arsed parked on the main castleknock road for 2 weeks. The car originally had a smashed window, and was an obstruction for other road users, within the 2 weeks the car the car was badly vandalised - until it was removed by someone. Same week, a fiesta sat in a similiar position near the town center, for a similiar length of time.

Tips for securing your car would be to ;
1. get a good alarm and immobiliser
2. put wheel lock nuts on your wheels
3. do the chain on the wheel and attach it to something !
4. put a steering lock on the wheel
5. remove the locks from the doors - if you own a coupe, and there is also a saloon model of your car, chances are the rear door handles can be used to removed the locks
6. Tint the glass, makes it harder to smash, they don't have to be limo black
7. Remove your radio front if you can, some radios allow this
8. Make your car less inviting to that of your neighbours !

Captain Trips

Originally posted by ondafly
6. Tint the glass, makes it harder to smash, they don't have to be limo black

How would this help? I don't understand? Unless it's the film of the tint that prevents it from shattering?

Chimaera

You can get the side windows laminated on the inside - it makes them very difficult to smash in without affecting the ability to break them out from the inside in an accident. Stops the average muppet-with-a-brick(tm) from getting in to your pride and joy.

Captain Trips

Nice tip, there. How much does that sort of thing cost?

Dr. Dre

Originally posted by Mailman
that just makes the local scum break into your house to steal the keys.

Aye, I know all about that !!! They come in. Touch nothing and take your keys!

Various posters
The gards said.... , The gards did.......

Load of balls. Had my car stolen in Dundalk.
The gards in a place down the road called castlebellingham rang me up (5 miles (tops) away) to ask me if my car had been stolen as they had found it with some ID in it. The gards in Dundalk hadn't even communicated it to the other "forces"
As in everything, the gards are about as usefull as a chocolate teapot, the keyword here being, apathy.

mike65

Originally posted by Chimaera
- it makes them very difficult to smash in without affecting the ability to break them out from the inside in an accident.

Suppose you needed to break them from the outside in the event of an accident Just a thought...

Mike.

Victor

Originally posted by mike65
Suppose you needed to break them from the outside in the event of an accident

You just might want someone outside to smash it in aswell ...

pclancy

Move to Laois and sleep soundly even though you left your keys in the ignition. Yes I know people who often leave the keys in the car overnight. And while we're on the subject of steering locks my civic was robbed with a €50 steering lock on it. Car was recovered minus its alloys only. They left the head unit cos i had the front taken off but robbed the wheels, loads of CDs, a can of lynx(!), the honda badge of the bonnet and my perscription sunglasses!!! So there's a scumbag walking round something bumping into stuff cos he's blind wearing my specs!

Ph3n0m

A friend of mine had his car broken 7 times in a 2 month period.

So his new strategy was to leave his not so small dog in the car overnight - with food, etc. So far the dog has only urinated in the car, but its now 1 year on and now one has even touched the car.

Yes the smell is attrocious and he has to wash it out nearly every second day, but he says its worth it - go figure. And yes the dog is still alive and well