Who even breaks into old cars?

[Braapdaddy]

My brother had a 82 full size cutlass kept getting stolen via the column happened more than once always found by cops out of gas and towed ....

Started putting a square of plywood with wood screws ran thru it about 1 1/2 long in the driver's seat with a seat cover over it

I had a Dodge Dakota that had the head unit stolen twice ........ glued razor blades to the back edge of a junk head unit and waited ........ Monday morning after the super bowl I woke to the drivers door wide open and literal pieces of meat and blood left behind justice was served up good

 

[B6_Dolphin]

Back on a summer afternoon in the mid-1990s, we took my wife's '84 Buick Skyhawk T-type downtown to the Taste Of Buffalo (NY). We came back about 3 hours later and the street parking spot was empty with broken glass on (what would have been) the passenger side (2-dr).

I had installed a detachable-face Pioneer head unit with the CD-changer in the trunk about a year earlier. Removed the face and it was in her purse for the festival. Didn't matter - when the car was recovered the next day, about 3 miles away, the rest of the head unit and CD changer was missing, but aside from the broken window and busted steering column, the car was otherwise as we left it, and no one bothered to joy-ride in it, either (it had the 150-hp 1.8 turbo 4-cyl engine).

Sometimes it pays to drive a unicorn. Nothing of value to the chop-shops, perhaps...

 

[Rmay635703]

The few that are left are always stolen. Pickups made in the 2000s are also hot commodities now.

If they joyride my truck from the 2000’s the front end would fall off, would be easy to catch

 

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

In the late 1990's I had an early 1980's chevy station wagon that was in rough shape, used to go to the station, short errands etc. This was very close to NYC. Stolen twice, the first time it was recovered, the second time it stalled out in the road as they tried to take off & was left in the road.

80s GM is maybe the stuff of lore... more than a few of us had parents whose cars would start without the key just turn the two knobs on the ignition cylinder.

Apparently they are very easy to steal something about just break the column and turn it. (CAPRICE)

 

[ekrampitzjr]

80s GM is maybe the stuff of lore... more than a few of us had parents whose cars would start without the key just turn the two knobs on the ignition cylinder.

Apparently they are very easy to steal something about just break the column and turn it. (CAPRICE)

When GM products used the two-key system with relatively small keys, over time with many miles the ignition switch would wear so that the key was no longer needed. I know of a 30–year-old Chevy pickup that's like that.

 

[10WSmuckers]

If they joyride my truck from the 2000’s the front end would fall off, would be easy to catch

View attachment 122443

A thief is the least of your concerns. That's truly a pile of crap

 

[brianl703]

80s GM is maybe the stuff of lore... more than a few of us had parents whose cars would start without the key just turn the two knobs on the ignition cylinder.

Apparently they are very easy to steal something about just break the column and turn it. (CAPRICE)

Phrack Magazine had instructions on how to steal a Camaro. This was in the 07-01-1993 edition:

.:: Phrack Magazine ::.

phrack.org

 

[shortyb]

It's been a couple years since I went to work that way, but there's a 6-lane highway I used to go to work. And it seems like every few months a car would get abandoned and left on the shoulder, usually the tags would be missing. And I'd see it every day and when it had been sitting there for a month, I'd get fed up with Fairfax County's inaction, it's a safety hazard and one of the richest counties in the country really ought to not have abandoned vehicles sitting on their roads for weeks...

So I'd call the Fairfax County Police Department:

"Hi, I'm calling about the abandoned vehicle on 28 near (description of where it is). It's been sitting there for a month. Do you think you could maybe get that removed? I'm getting sick of seeing it every day. Thanks!"

And the next day it would have an orange "VEHICLE WILL BE TOWED" sticker on it and a couple days after that it would be gone.

Why does it take a phone call to get these lazy people to do their job???

Oh Lord, 28. Thats where I spent 25 years fighting crime and guarding the peace. We were FAR from lazy as we would always have 2 calls waiting in the CAD when we finished one. We didn't have time to be lazy. Left there 15 years ago and still have friends on the dept. that tell me its gotten exponentially worse due to the population explosion of the area. Abandoned cars were low priority and mostly in the wheelhouse of VSP anyway unless the cars were on surface streets, so complaints were transferred to them. Still slapped my share of tow tags on cars though and always checked VINs for stolen ones.

 

[demarpaint]

Homeless people and addicts, looking for $$ and things they can sell.

 

[brianl703]

Abandoned cars were low priority and mostly in the wheelhouse of VSP anyway

Why would VSP deal with abandoned cars on a non-Interstate highway like 28? They don't run radar on it. That would be Fairfax County PD doing that.

 

[DejaVue]

I had someone rummage through my old Toyota pickup. Kind of embarrassing that they didn't take anything. Apparently the old Top Gun soundtrack CD is not desirable to pill heads.

They should put that on a Don't Do Drugs commercial. "Drugs will rot your brain so much you won't even want to listen to the Top Gun soundtrack." Drug use would fall by 50% immediately.

Years ago I worked with some guys that lived in the city. It got to the point for them that they didn't dare lock their vehicles because they'd wind up with broken windows.

Right now, in San Francisco, and probably elsewhere, people park in the middle of downtown in the middle of the day with their trunks and SUV rear hatches wide open so thieves can see there's nothing in there.

 

[DejaVue]

The down side is leaving it unlocked & somebody has popped the hood & stolen the battery...

It doesn't work for the smarter thieves, but having a vehicle with the battery in the trunk, (or putting it there yourself), can fool some of the drugged-up thieves. They pop the hood and go, "whoa.... dude... someone else already stole the battery...."

 

[Rmay635703]

A thief is the least of your concerns. That's truly a pile of crap

The rust is only on the front suspension and wheels, rest of the truck is clean