Stolen Battery-New one on Me

[Soggydog]

My dad volunteered to drive the church bus when I was a kid. He would run a route before services picking up elderly parishioners and a few kids whose parents would send them but had better things to do. One Sunday the bus wouldn't start. They opened the hood to find someone had stolen the carburetor. They chained the hood down a few weeks later when the battery was stolen. On another Sunday all the tires were slashed....The tires were replaced with new only to find the bus resting on blocks the following sunday.

 

[Dinoburner]

Theft is so ubiquitous now that it seems unstoppable. calling thieves porch pirates is a term of endearment to losers. The police can`t be bothered with so called petty theft and in this area don`t even think of hurting a [censored] in the act. Only if you catch someone inside your home can you protect yourself.

 

[RhondaHonda]

I broke down once in Denver and needed a battery. A presumably homeless guy came up to me and offered to run and get me one for $10. I passed.

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted by mrsilv04

And once they steal the one that was in there... they'll come back a few weeks/months later and try to steal the new battery. They know exactly where to find a brand new battery later on.

When I was going to automotive tech school decades ago, we had two guys in our class who did that. Except they would go back THE NEXT NIGHT and steal the replacement battery because they knew it was a brand new one. No, they didn't bring back the original battery that they stole, either.

 

[Kira]

Workmates praised my '76 Nova when I drove it by work. "Get a hood lock for that car so they don't steal your battery", said my boss. I absolutely wanted one.....a no-brainer. They got my battery that night. There was a silver lining however. A geezer came out and gave me a battery on it's last legs. It got me home and I had a trade in for a new battery. Not the worst of theft stories.

 

[WagonWheel]

Originally Posted by AC1DD

Originally Posted by Onetor

There are no consequences for property crimes. It's a trend around our Country.

God Bless Texas...in that state you can defend your car and other property with deadly force, unfortunately those are the only consequences that many thieves will ever understand, and I fully support paying the ultimate price for stealing cars, TVs, ect... The only sympathy I have is if a poor person steals a loaf of bread and some cold cuts.

In Texas, porch pirating is now a felony. But in general, it won't stop until they fear their victim. https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/20/us/texas-mail-theft-trnd/index.html

 

[rubberchicken]

My dad had a 1963 MGB- he came out one time, probably about 1985, and the MG would not start and had dead electrics. He found that somebody had popped the hood and stolen his generator off of the engine. (he swore it was a generator, not an alternator).

 

[AC1DD]

Originally Posted by WagonWheel

Originally Posted by AC1DD

Originally Posted by Onetor

There are no consequences for property crimes. It's a trend around our Country.

God Bless Texas...in that state you can defend your car and other property with deadly force, unfortunately those are the only consequences that many thieves will ever understand, and I fully support paying the ultimate price for stealing cars, TVs, ect... The only sympathy I have is if a poor person steals a loaf of bread and some cold cuts.

In Texas, porch pirating is now a felony. But in general, it won't stop until they fear their victim. https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/20/us/texas-mail-theft-trnd/index.html

Exactly, and in Texas and a few other states you can definitely put the fear of God in them. Bottom line is in some locations a thief might end up dead and the property owner will be legally justified to dispense "Justice" with a capital J on the spot. I support that 100%. The "just us" system and law enforcement stopped serving and protecting decades ago. In fact the Supreme Court ruled that the police don't have to do either one at all, and today many of them do not.

 

[bunnspecial]

Originally Posted by rubberchicken

My dad had a 1963 MGB- he came out one time, probably about 1985, and the MG would not start and had dead electrics. He found that somebody had popped the hood and stolen his generator off of the engine. (he swore it was a generator, not an alternator).

A '63 would have come from the factory with a generator. They went to alternators in '68, which also coincided with a change to negative ground and a whole lot of other changes. A lot of the early ones have been converted to alternators(which also generally requires a conversion to negative ground also) but I also know plenty of people who still run a generator. In good condition, they're mostly okay as long as your electrical system is pretty well bone stock and you don't want to put a crazy amount of load on it. Unfortunately, at least at idle, even the first model alternator used on the cars can't keep up with the headlights, heater blower, windshield wipers, brake lights, and turn signals-I run the higher capacity alternator that started being used in the mid-70s for that reason.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Many years ago my dad had a 1970 Torino GT with a 4-speed manual. Came out one morning to go somewhere, fired up the car and put it in reverse - it didn't move. Put it in 1st gesr - still didn't move. He gets out and looks under the car and the driveshaft was gone. Guess some guy needed a driveshaft for an old Torino and ripped it off right in the driveway.

 

[GMBoy]

I had the deep cycle battery stolen from my RV in a gated storage facility. People just suck.

 

[Driz]

Here's a new consequence of the woke society you won't expect. Those wonder cars with the start stop use a special battery to make up for the abuse of starting at every light. I can't speak for the rest but at least for the 18 up Camrays the dealers can't get the battery's without weeks long backorder. Some guy is on the Camray forum wild because his new OEM and the dealer can't get a battery for several weeks. They won't put a temporary loaner in for him either. From what they are saying there's a back log on these and manufacturing just can't get caught up . Another senseless thing to worry about. You can bet that the hood rats will be catching on soon too. They'll know how to get in there lock or not. I wonder when the great starter shortage is going to begin🥵 .

 

[dlundblad]

Originally Posted by Driz

Here's a new consequence of the woke society you won't expect. Those wonder cars with the start stop use a special battery to make up for the abuse of starting at every light. I can't speak for the rest but at least for the 18 up Camrays the dealers can't get the battery's without weeks long backorder. Some guy is on the Camray forum wild because his new OEM and the dealer can't get a battery for several weeks. They won't put a temporary loaner in for him either. From what they are saying there's a back log on these and manufacturing just can't get caught up . Another senseless thing to worry about. You can bet that the hood rats will be catching on soon too. They'll know how to get in there lock or not. I wonder when the great starter shortage is going to begin🥵 .

I did not know they required a special battery. Ouch.

 

[ragtoplvr]

I remember like 40 years ago I took a business trip to Pueblo Mexico. We did not drive, but several times when we went to leave our battery was gone. My driver just went to other compatible cars and took a battery. It seemed to be SOP. On that same trip it started to rain, my driver pulled over and put on his windshield wiper blade. Rod

 

[MasterSolenoid]

My Garage is attached to the House. If I ever park in my Driveway (not the Garage), I always bring the 'Garage Door Remote Control' into the house. It's sad that are Society is looking at Criminals as 'Victims of Society'.

 

[PimTac]

It wasn't all that long ago that thieves were cutting off catalytic converters for their platinum content.

 

[atikovi]

They still do.

 

[bunnspecial]

Originally Posted by MasterSolenoid

My Garage is attached to the House. If I ever park in my Driveway (not the Garage), I always bring the 'Garage Door Remote Control' into the house. It's sad that are Society is looking at Criminals as 'Victims of Society'.

Funny thing-I posted this as a "crime report" on my neighborhood's message board, and the only response was one individual raking ME over the coals for because I made it too easy to get(not latching the hood). I didn't know that failing to secure something completely was a free license to take whatever you can get at! Pretty much any time there's a petty theft reported in the neighborhood, someone comes to the defense of the thief. It's always a different message but something along the lines of "they're just homeless/down on their luck/out of a job-you can afford it" and the like. I'm a generous person and if you ASKED me for the $10 or so that the thief probably got for the battery, chances are decent that I'd have given it to them!

 

[biggusblockus]

I recently noticed the little caps on all my valve stems were suddenly missing. I can't believe they were stolen but there is no other explanation. Unreal!

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted by biggusblockus

I recently noticed the little caps on all my valve stems were suddenly missing. I can't believe they were stolen but there is no other explanation. Unreal!

Once many years ago I worked for a large company and I noticed my Yellow Pages was missing, As I asked around to use someone else's we all found they had been taken from our desk drawers. I never really figured out why someone was stealing phone books