My two "toy' cars-the MG and the Marina-are in a car port that's shared with other residents of the condo where I live. I've had tools and things stolen from there before, so am very particular about keeping things locked up(I don't lock the MG doors-I don't want someone cutting the top and instead just don't store anything valuable outside of the trunk) and even inside if possible.
Back in November, I knew I probably wouldn't be messing with the Marina much, so sort of winterized it by draining the coolant(it was around 80% water and I need to change the hoses when the weather gets warmer) plus disconnecting the battery. Apparently in all of that, I didn't actually manage to get the hood latched.
I went out today to check on it, and found the battery completely gone out of it. Asking around, it's apparently not an unheard of thing here.
Previously, I'd had a dead/cracked case battery stolen from the ground next to the MG. I'd swapped it, and hadn't had a chance to take the core back yet.
Has anyone seen this before? Fortunately it was a cheap battery, but it's an inconvenience and the principle also upsets me.
Stolen Battery-New one on Me
- Thread starter bunnspecial
- Start date
Thievery knows no bounds.
I don't keep batteries in any of the 20+ cars I have stored outdoors and fully fenced, not that most of them would be good anyway. Be glad it's not new enough to have a cat.
Scrap Batteries sell for $12 here. Some tweeker can easily make $48 or more by stealing them.
I was friends guy in high school who went to our rival school. We knew each other from golf matches. He wasn't wound real tight. We went to the same university. He was arrested for stealing a battery out of a parked car on campus. 1981. No idea what he was going to do with a car battery or whatever happened to him. Guess the freedom of college life was more than he could handle. I think car batteries getting stolen was a lot more prevalent back then.
I had one stolen out of my '78 F-100 (no inside hood release) at my old house in the 'hood when I was working on the night shift-wife wouldn't let our 115 pound half-insane male German Shepherd out to go after the thief-I was disappointed she didn't! I would have handled the lawsuit!
People who steal batteries are the same ones who would take your rims and leave your car on blocks.....
Back in the day when you could open the hood (in Brit-speak, this would be the bonnet, of course while the hood is what we would call the top of a convertible)
without gaining access to the interior of the car, battery theft did happen.
WRT your MGB, gaining interior access would be as easy as lifting the back edges of the hood (top) off a few lift-a-dots. No need to cut the top, or hood as the manual of my MGB had it.
Originally Posted by Vern_in_IL
People who steal batteries are the same ones who would take your rims and leave your car on blocks.....
Originally Posted by fdcg27
WRT your MGB, gaining interior access would be as easy as lifting the back edges of the hood (top) off a few lift-a-dots. No need to cut the top, or hood as the manual of my MGB had it.
Talk about petty theft. That's pathetic. 
Originally Posted by Onetor
There are no consequences for property crimes. It's a trend around our Country.
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i have put a couple of old lawn mowers by the side of my house that faces the street. put an ad in CL for someone to pick them up. i sent my address to a couple of people that responded. someone came and took them away. they also walked around the other side of the house and took a old battery i had there .
battery was deader than dead , so i am just irritated they went around my house. they probably took it to the battery place and got $5 for it .
Never leave anything outside if you are wanting to keep it
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Originally Posted by mrsilv04
And once they steal the one that was in there... they'll come back a few weeks/months later and steal the new battery.
They know exactly where to find a brand new battery later on.
Lots of thieving scum with no morals whatsoever. They'll steal form you, stores, wherever, and somehow justify it in their mind. Lock-up anything you want to have a chance of keeping.
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Kestas
Staff member
We had one stolen long time ago from our '72 Ford. No hood lock. The dash clock was stopped at 2:30 am.
Originally Posted by bunnspecial
The Marina that I had one stolen off of, however, is a different story as it's right where you'd expect it to be. The one thing it DOES have going for it is that-as long as you make sure the hood(bonnet) is latched, the release isn't easy to find. It's on the passenger side, right below the glove box-a consequence of BL exporting a mass-marked UK car to the US in small numbers.
