So much for my theory that a stock stereo will keep a car safe from theft.

Apparently the thieves just steal the whole car instead. I came up with this theory after having 4 stereos and 4 windows broken in the past 5 years, in a "good neighborhood". This car had a stock stereo and a top-quality alarm system.

My beautiful, perfect car is gone, ripped off over night. I probably had about 160 hours of sweat in it, not making it pretty, but making it purr.

So now I'm at the mercy of LoJack (which I only just remembered I had). Let's see if this thing really works. Has anyone else had a stolen LoJack equipped car found?

One in which cars are not stolen or broken into must not be part of the criteria.

You have to go to fancy neighborhoods to steal cars. There is not a lot of cash to be had stealing hoopties, and the people in poor neighborhoods with nice cars are often criminals with guns.

The OP's mistake is probably living too close to the freeway.

Not too close to the city center and not too far. However there are some low rent apartments near by.

A professional car thief has nicer digs than they do, and what you ran into this time was a pro.

The other times, though...

so, unless you live within driving distance of Mexico (where Lojack doesn't work), you should be able to find it. If it was installed at the dealers, call them up and they can give you the serial numbers (if you don't have it).

Those are damn good odds. Finger's crossed.

With my luck lately I'll probably be in the 10% group or they'll find it totalled. :eyes:

I had a broken cheap stereo stolen out of a 20 yr. old beater, in broad daylight.
Didn't bother reporting it, the jerk saved me the trouble of pulling it and throwing it out myself.
I was pissed that my favorite cassette tape was missing along with it.

I was working for the Boston Concert Promoter, Don Law, at one time. Besides working at the Great Woods concert facility, I also worked the big outdoor shows at Foxboro Stadium. Right next door was the State Police barracks, and we had a lot of the troopers working at the concerts. One day, I saw this State Police car with 4 antennas on the roof. Knowing something about radio, I knew that this was likely a direction-finding array, but for what? I asked around, and I ended up talking to the cop who's car this was. He said that they were involved in the development of this new technology for finding stolen cars called "LoJack". He said that it could make stolen cars a thing of the past. They would test by sending two cops out in a LoJack equipped car, into Greater Boston. They were to evade the search, using any means. They would send two cars after them, to allow triangulation.

The longest any team was able to evade the foxhounds was 30 minutes. Most were a lot less.

I'm off to see the damage, the officer said it was just the steering column, but we'll see.

LoJack works!

I'm glad they found it, and I hope the damage is minimal...

The steering column is jacked bad, but I could start it by using the thief's hot wire setup. Other than that they took the sun visors (WTF?) and just did some other minor damage to some plastic trim pieces. The officer there was really loving LoJack, I think it was the first time he got to use it.

I'm just so glad I got it back because my car is my baby. Now to see if I can meet my deductible for repairs. It's $500. :(

You got it back, that's a good start. Weird about the sun visors and the other damage. Like, what's the point? Expressing random anger?

Anyway, I hope you can meet the deductible and get it all sorted out. :hug:

, the car manual, the beanie babies in the glove box, my son's watch & sunglasses & my two costco canvas shopping bags.. (these were kids..rousted from their sleep in their jammies)..The cops called me at 1 am to go and ID the car..

Even though it was a few hours, the cops refused to enter their apartment and get my stuff :grr:

I miss those canvas bags...

I'm quite freaked out that they were able to get in without busting the door locks. Maybe I just forgot to press "lock" last night.

I think I'm going to put a kill switch on it as soon as the weather allows.

found the car in the parking lot they fit.,. like on "The Price is Right".. :grr:

Glad you got your car back!

Did the cops catch the shitstain who stole your car? Would be nice to have him in PMITA prison for a few years...

I hate thieves. HATE 'EM. I want this thief to suffer.

I can smell the thief's cologne though and I know he likes to listen to the hip-hop station. There's really nothing the police can do, I'm just happy to have my car back.

a sunny day, i came outside and thought i'd forgotten where i parked it so i walked around for about 10 minutes when it sunk, my car was stolen. What really pissed me off was my entire cd collection was in the car (my own dumb ass fault), my prescription sunglasses and a few game boy games of my daughter, They found my car about 90 days later when it no longer belonged to me. Now i leave nothing in my car. People who steal suck.

I hope your car is recovered and it's in good shape, if it's not in good shape i hope it's not recovered.

There was a story about it on the local news a few weeks ago, someone had stolen a handivan from a paraplegic and sold it for three hundred bucks at car crusher. There is a law here that you must have title to the salvage car, how they got around that I don't know.
This is probably happening quite a lot now, so probably no neighborhood is a "safe" neighborhood.

I know that for a fact, the cops do too.

Same deal with pawn shops.

"we check IDs and verify all sources", they say... BULL. SHIT.

I know. How dumb can people be?
In fact, nothing with a home address should be left it the car. Thieves that steal cars from parking lots will use the address to find the owners home and then use garage door opener to get into and steal from a home while the owners are away.

They left all my receipts and registration stuff, but they did take my change, about $4.00 worth.

I'm guessing they just took a joy ride and stole whatever wasn't nailed down.

/

I hope they catch the scumbag that did it & give them some hard time.

These are the type of people that deserve a nice stretch in prison, not the non-violent marijuana user.