About the latest targets of car thieves. As some of you may know, I'm a cop in Westchester Co., NY. Most of you already know about the headlights on the cl/tl being a favorite target. That has not changed, I take several reports a week on that. I know some on this board have other cars so I thought I'd share what has become the latest targets of these thieves over the last few weeks:

BMW- All models, thieves are breaking into BMWs through divers side door, checking glove box for "plastic" key which can start the car. If key is found, car is stolen. If there is no key, the thieves are taking assorted parts almost always including the spare tire (valued at $600.) & speakers.

Toyota Camry (00-02) Driver side window is shattered, entry gained, with stereo removed in UNDER 3 minutes!

You should also know this has happened MOSTLY in huge public lots such as Home Depot, Costco, Movie lots and mall lots during all hours of the day. Worst part is amount of damage left on all 3 cars. The damage to the Acuras sometimes include the hood itself. The security systems on all these cars (after-market or not) have been useless. I had to take AT LEAST 15-20 reports on this in the past month, and I only worked 18 days last month! And always on these 3 cars! No American cars, No Lexus' etc. It's realy bad in the NY/NJ/CT metro area...Anyway just BE AWARE!! If some of you already knew about this or if a warning had previously been posted, sorry for re-hashing. BTW, we are trying very hard to catch someone in the act with decoy cars (mine was used) etc. Hopefully, we will, but catching 1 or 2 in the act is not going to stop such a wide spread problem. L8r

 

ouch :o

how do we protect our cars if alarms dont work? flame throwers on the sides like in argentina?

 

wow. thanks for telling the info and i will want to protect my cls and jeep more secure.i rarelly drive my cls now..i will keep an eye on my cars often.i hate those car thieves too..i hate u

 

why do you hate the man?

RayRay, Thank you for the info .. Please keep us updated if there is anything new.

 

I want to electrify my car when alarm is armed.

 

makes me glad to be a canuck, don't have problems like that around here too often

 

The video of that thing in action is crazy. For those who haven't seen it, check out http://www9.cnn.com/WORLD/africa/981...me.thrower.car

 

Don't you mean you're glad to be a Toronto Maple Leaf?? J/K!

 

Makes me glad to live in Ohio. No real problems here (at least for me), yet......

Thanks, RayRay. Keep up the great work. And be carefull out there.

Jim

 

Turn the outside of your car into a giant electrical socket.

 

Anyone have a alarm with a beeper? I wonder if this would help with at least you finding out faster when you've been ripped off...

 

I don't understand why they can't make it legal here in the states. It's car self-defense. Besides you aren't trying to kill the man, just deterring him from stealing your car.

 

Acura has had a year or 2 now to deal with this problem, it is not that new. Seems like they could tweak the headlight design for better security. I heard thieves just cut away plastic to get the HID system out. Is that right?

 

as a cop how do you feel about the whole racing scene?

 

i've witness this first hand..this is really getting out of control..
http://www.acura-tl.com/forum/showth...threadid=24282

 

Yeah, they bend and cut away the plastic housing after they get the hood up. I don't know how the hood gets damaged, but on some of the cars I've seen, the hood is damaged around the grill area. The factory alarm is simply disconnected when the battery cables are removed. I also heard rumors that the light housing is worth upwards of $800.00 on the black market! I also noticed that the bulbs often get left behind.

 

Thanks SK, I will.

 

I used to street race all the time and I like getting on my car as much as you all do but I have learned alot since I became a cop, seen many terrible accidents including one on my shift tonight where a 6 yr old was run over by a speeding car (not racing). The 6 yr old girl is critical and had to be flown by helicopter to a trama center. I guess things like that have calmed me down, because it is always in the back of your head what could go wrong. Whatever I say won't change what you will do anyway, so let's just say my advice is to think twice and BE CAREFUL!!

 

Well - that last statement puts you at the tops of my list for cops.

I dunno what the deal is with cops in Orlando, but they ALL have a penchant for pulling fast cars over.

Perfect example is my "improper start from a stopped position" ticket that I got thrown out. I was next to this moron motorcycle cop, with my stock, still-legal. but nearly bald tires, and went on the green. My tires did a quick brrp because of the pavement and that dumb paint stripe, and the dude pulled me over and gave me the ticket for that. MY personal opinion on why he gave me a ticket was because he was cheesed because the lane I was in eventually merged and I pulled ahead of him (1/2 to 3/4 throttle at the most, not even VTEC), put my blinker on, and got in front of him. :p

Like I said, the judge agreed with me and threw it out, telling the cop "If anything, that should have been a careless driving ticket, and I would have thrown that out too"

heh

 

those basturds!!!!

a friend of got a brand new BMW 330xi... he went to Home Depot in Secaucus, NJ... when he came out, he found someone had tried to break into his car... but unsuccessfully.. however, the driver side door lock is screwed up and needed replacement, and both driver and passenger doors were scratched big time around the locks... the driver side window was also heavily scratched which was also later replaced.... all the fix costed him over 1400 dollars... man...

another co-worker of mine has a Acura TL, he lives in Jersey City, he has own driveway, and yet, his TL's HID headlights got stolen twice!! The lightbulbs were not that expensive, but the crowbarred bumps cost them 2g to fix twice!!!

I don't know what to say... besides that, I gotta watch where and when I park my car....

 

that was some funny shit man

 

We have a section called "Unsafe Start" in NY. I really try and stay away from writing that section because it is very subjective.