PDA

View Full Version : Thieves



Conquistador_del_mar
09-27-2009, 12:50 PM
A local sheriff's deputy and I figure some teenagers broke into my car building and ripped the consoles out to get a couple radios worth maybe $50 each on the street - :mad: They did a few thousand dollars damage to my 1980 Vette and 1987 Jaguar XJS. I bought and set up a game surveillance camera Friday night in case they came back for more, and I staked out there last night until 2:45AM hidden with some "protection" to no avail. I can't stand thieves!! Bill

Ghost
09-27-2009, 02:37 PM
Sickening.

Ed Donnelly
09-27-2009, 02:44 PM
Lots of nice hard surfaces for fingerprints... Ed

Carl C
09-27-2009, 02:54 PM
Install an alarm. Not a monitored system just one with sirens. Both of my homes are alarmed. Make sure the system resets itself so it doesn't go non-stop and pissing off the neighbors. I own a store and caught a lady hiding DVDs in her baby buggy yesterday:mad:. I deal with theives all week-end long.:mad: Motion sensing lights help too. Forget the cams, they prolly will be wearing masks and gloves. They don't like noise and lights though.......or guns....or dogs:nilly:

Cuda
09-27-2009, 03:03 PM
If they steal one dollar, or a million dollars, they are called the same thing........................a theif! :mad:

silverghost
09-27-2009, 04:13 PM
Sorry to hear about all the damage they caused !
Years ago in an old boatyard where my Uncle stored his boats in the 60s-70s the old coot yard owner Howard Haines used to put signs on all the doors.
"CAUTION THIEF
SHOTGUN WIRED TO DOORS !"
Howard would go to Florida for the winter~
The boatyard & his house were unoccupied.
He NEVER had a break-in!
Knowing old Howard there probably were shotguns wired to all doors !
Now that's my kind of alarm system!
Each year we would fill-up our boat gastanks in yard storage to prevent condensation; And cover the boat.
Every Spring the tanks were almost empty!
We also had our Holly 4 barrel carbs stolen several times!
Props were also stolen.
We gave-up on filling the gastanks & removed our carbs and props fromt then on!

I hope you get the guys who did this to you!

BUIZILLA
09-27-2009, 04:19 PM
it would have to be one of your tenants as the culprit... who else knew which bay the cars were in?

f_inscreenname
09-27-2009, 04:24 PM
Last break in, my Conversion van suffered cost about $1500 in repairs and they got a 7 year old VHS player. :mad:

mphatc
09-27-2009, 07:38 PM
Sorry for the loss!

I'm with Carl C and Buizilla on this. Most cameras won't give you enough clarity for identification.

At my last place of employment we had a custom parts store which was broken into, fully wired with state of the art cameras, got images of the breakin and couldn't get any ID from the poor images.

At my present shop where I often have expensive customer cars outside, I utilize bright lighting.
Here I had a few items stolen 7 years ago, and the theives turned out to be a customer!! While waiting for service they had time to peruse the lot. When they crashed their car, I bought the wreck from the Dad, low and behold, all my stolen parts were in the trunk!

Your culprit is someone close! Atleast they didn't vandalize a boat, or steal the car!

Mario L.

farmer tx
09-27-2009, 08:55 PM
Bill, That $ucks! I'm still compiling a list of the tools the a$$holes got from me a few weeks ago. I now have door sensors, sirens,red and blue strobes,heat and smoke detectors hooked to a monitoring company. You can't afford not to now adays. My break in was during the lunch hour. Had to have missed them by minutes,lucky for them, I would have capped them.:mad::mad::uzi:

penbroke
09-27-2009, 08:58 PM
That sucks man. I've been there...

I really don't get it when they do more damage than the stuff is worth. I hope they are caught.


Frank

Conquistador_del_mar
09-27-2009, 11:32 PM
Thanks for all the replies and suggestions, guys. We tried to get fingerprints, but could not find any good ones. The deputy dusted a few places trying to get a good one after we both looked the cars over, but they were not solid prints. I ordered a few siren/strobe motion alarms last night, since I didn't figure I would find them locally. Another stall was broken into by the same guy/guys (probably Thursday night) since I found an unusual cigarette butt (Berkley) by both stalls. Fortunately, nothing was taken from the other stall after I called the owner. My 5 stall car building is right behind my shop building, and I really think it was randomly hit. Unfortunately for me, there are no partitions between the stall bays since they are all my cars. Once in, the theives had 4 cars to steal from. At least they didn't steal one of the cars or vandalize them other than butchering the consoles of the two cars! I got the game surveillance camera since I want the guy/guys caught before they continue breaking into any other of my stalls plus it was late when I went out to get something - I ended up at Gander Mountain right before closing time. I will let you all know if we catch the thieves. I really doubt that the thieves are reading this board or I would be stupid for disclosing any of this. I will be going out there again tonight for a couple hours - yes, I am always armed. Thanks again, Bill

gcarter
09-28-2009, 05:52 AM
This is a shame Bill.
I hope you get some satisfaction.

Cuda
09-28-2009, 06:01 AM
You're lucky the police got involved at all. I had my Formula at a ten foot fenced in yard with barb wire at the top at Twin Disc to have a trannie rebuilt. Someone broke into my boat and stole over a grand of stuff. Tampa police wouldn't even come out. They took the report over the phone.:mad:

The Hedgehog
09-28-2009, 09:12 AM
I am sorry to hear that. I hope that they catch them. Very little pisses me off more than that.

Lenny
09-28-2009, 10:26 AM
Brutal. Sorry to hear that. Around my place I have one of these wandering around 24/7. Pretty much knows when a fly invades my air space. :yes:

http://www.dog-breed-facts.com/images/German-Shepherd-.jpg

Craig S
09-28-2009, 11:09 AM
I'm not a dog person, but that's way better than ADT. Way better.
And, I'm very sorry to hear about your break-in.


Brutal. Sorry to hear that. Around my place I have one of these wandering around 24/7. Pretty much knows when a fly invades my air space. :yes:

http://www.dog-breed-facts.com/images/German-Shepherd-.jpg

zelatore
09-28-2009, 12:32 PM
You're lucky the police got involved at all. I had my Formula at a ten foot fenced in yard with barb wire at the top at Twin Disc to have a trannie rebuilt. Someone broke into my boat and stole over a grand of stuff. Tampa police wouldn't even come out. They took the report over the phone.:mad:

Sounds familiar. A couple months ago some vandals threw some bottles and rocks through a window on a customer's boat that was here for some work. Not only would the Oakland police not come out, they sent me to a website to fill out the report! In the 'other information' section of the form I told them I had photos, the broken Hennesy bottle was still in-place where it had landed and likely had fingerprints, etc... I never heard a word from them, even though it was about $2500 in damages.

And yes, of course we fixed the damage to the customer's boat at no charge.

Donzi_Dude
09-28-2009, 02:51 PM
sickening.


+1000!

Donzi_Dude
09-28-2009, 02:52 PM
I'm not a dog person, but that's way better than ADT. Way better.


some wolf in that one!

:)

Schnook
09-28-2009, 03:29 PM
Sorry to hear about all the damage they caused !
Years ago in an old boatyard where my Uncle stored his boats in the 60s-70s the old coot yard owner Howard Haines used to put signs on all the doors.
"CAUTION THIEF
SHOTGUN WIRED TO DOORS !"
Howard would go to Florida for the winter~
The boatyard & his house were unoccupied.
He NEVER had a break-in!
Knowing old Howard there probably were shotguns wired to all doors !
Now that's my kind of alarm system!
Each year we would fill-up our boat gastanks in yard storage to prevent condensation; And cover the boat.
Every Spring the tanks were almost empty!
We also had our Holly 4 barrel carbs stolen several times!
Props were also stolen.
We gave-up on filling the gastanks & removed our carbs and props fromt then on!
I hope you get the guys who did this to you!
I had my batteries and some tools stolen from my storage at the beginning of the season, too. A word of caution, check with your local authorities before setting a trap for a thief. We had an old man who did the same thing at his warehouse. The cops came out and told him it could be considered pre-meditated murder if someone actually got killed breaking in! I'd hate to hear about someone going to jail because our jacked up legal system protected the bad guy.

Donzi_Dude
09-28-2009, 05:27 PM
not to get off topic but a man told me a story awhile back about a propriator that kept getting break-in's. i dont recall the city.

anywho they kept coming in the roof. the man rigged a box springs to a 220V line. when he came into the shop the next morning he had himself a crispy critter.

man was charged, ended up walking away. dont recall the exact detail but there was a large public outcry/sympathy for him.

:cool:

BigGrizzly
09-28-2009, 08:07 PM
I can only say sorry-had a house robed once and all my tools stolen once also.

mrfixxall
09-28-2009, 09:06 PM
not to get off topic but a man told me a story awhile back about a propriator that kept getting break-in's. i dont recall the city.
anywho they kept coming in the roof. the man rigged a box springs to a 220V line. when he came into the shop the next morning he had himself a crispy critter.
man was charged, ended up walking away. dont recall the exact detail but there was a large public outcry/sympathy for him.
:cool:


they have to find evidence first:).... Bill sorry to hear what happened,that really sucks!! just a word of advise if you catch the thief in one of your buildings,make sure he has some sort of weapon in his hand first,even if it cost's you a little blood sweat and tears first then cap his azz:) Any blunt object is considered a weapon,even if its your car stero..

Btw happened to me once,some guy was walking through my dads lawn with half my dashboard in his hands that contained my radio,i caught him and said hit me with your best shot so he tryed to hit me with the part of my dash..Lets just say he probably is still limping till this day...

DonziFreak
09-28-2009, 09:47 PM
Btw happened to me once,some guy was walking through my dads lawn with half my dashboard in his hands that contained my radio,i caught him and said hit me with your best shot so he tryed to hit me with the part of my dash..Lets just say he probably is still limping till this day...

Now that's how it's done....

Sorry to hear about that! I've had two cars broken into....well, actualy the same car withing three days, stole all my tools and then came back to try to steal the car! I did leave em a little surprise.......well, the car was still there atleast.

Conquistador_del_mar
09-28-2009, 10:31 PM
Lot of great stories and advice. This is at my boat stall business which is open to the public, so I am limited in terms of guard dogs, threatening signs, etc. If it does not stop, I will be forced into installing a security gate which I have always hated. I have not had any problems over the 14 years since building the complex, and I hope this was a single incident and everything returns to normal. With all the security lighting, security fencing around the entire complex, and visibility from the road to every stall, I have always felt like it was safe from thieves. I think I will be installing a surveillance system before resorting to a coded security gate. If CSI Miami came to town, I kept the two cigarette butts for DNA evidence - lol. Book 'em, Dano - wrong show. Thanks, guys. Bill

fegettes
09-28-2009, 11:48 PM
Like every one else, sorry to hear some one has taken advantage of you. It leaves you feeling like you have been violated, doesn't it?

Steve

Lenny
09-29-2009, 12:08 AM
Book 'em, Dano - wrong show. Thanks, guys. Bill

Hawaii is NOT DONZI friendly.. find a new place :D

Hope it all works out for you. :yes:

Conquistador_del_mar
09-29-2009, 02:07 AM
Like every one else, sorry to hear some one has taken advantage of you. It leaves you feeling like you have been violated, doesn't it?

Steve

Yes, Steve. Not only will it be a royal pain to get my cars back to their original condition, but I will be worried that it will happen again for quite some time - making me a little paranoid. This week I will be having to deal with my classic car insurance company, getting estimates and prices for parts that are difficult to find, getting the sheriff's report, etc. Quite honestly, it will likely be a while before I feel like fixing the cars since I don't want to have the thieves come right back like I have heard happens in home break-ins. I realize it could have been much worse, but I am not used to having these problems with all my careful planning and hard work. I just returned from making a trip out there, and I was encouraged to see 2 sheriff's cars and the local town police even though they were just sitting together at a closed convenience store. Maybe they are making the rounds :confused:. I want to move on to constructive stuff instead of being bogged down in fixing problems the thieves caused. Bill

fegettes
09-29-2009, 03:51 AM
Bill, since you have 5 bays with 4 cars, and who knows what else you have in there, there is always the concern that they have seen your "STUFF" and they will contemplate what they can come back to get. Not a good thought. They may lay low now that you are on the alert, and wait to come again. And since you can't watch the place every night, it may be time for some security monitoring.

Steve

Cuda
09-29-2009, 06:24 AM
Sounds familiar. A couple months ago some vandals threw some bottles and rocks through a window on a customer's boat that was here for some work. Not only would the Oakland police not come out, they sent me to a website to fill out the report! In the 'other information' section of the form I told them I had photos, the broken Hennesy bottle was still in-place where it had landed and likely had fingerprints, etc... I never heard a word from them, even though it was about $2500 in damages.
And yes, of course we fixed the damage to the customer's boat at no charge.
Broken Hennesy Bottle. I wonder who that could have been. Did you find any Courvasier and Coke?

Conquistador_del_mar
09-29-2009, 10:15 AM
Bill, since you have 5 bays with 4 cars, and who knows what else you have in there, there is always the concern that they have seen your "STUFF" and they will contemplate what they can come back to get. Not a good thought. They may lay low now that you are on the alert, and wait to come again. And since you can't watch the place every night, it may be time for some security monitoring.

Steve

Steve,
Those are my exact thoughts. Bill

A2VeeDub
09-29-2009, 01:54 PM
Just came home from the ocean all weekend to find my truck had been thoroughly tossed inside. Glove compartment, and center console contents sprawled throughout. Couldn't find anything missing that I know of. Didn't bother to take the Alpine CD player, amplifier, or ipod cord.

Then I noticed this morning that the same thing happened to my car right in front of my house while I was sleeping last night.

In either case I couldn't find anything missing.

I called the cops and they said that there have been a lot of these in my area and that the thieves are usually looking for GPS's or other high dollar portable electronics. I had none of these in either vehicle.

Still a terrible feeling even though nothing was taken. Just knowing that someone went through both of my vehicles gives me the creeps.