Super-bright headlights a hot item for thieves


By WAYNE PARRY
The Associated Press
10/10/02 1:37 PM


NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- It was dark, Benjamin Benson was tired after a long day at the office, and he slumped wearily into his car, flicked the switch for the headlights and pulled out into traffic.

"I start driving, and a police officer pulls me over and says, `Put your lights on!"' the Ramsey lawyer recalled. "I said, `Officer, they ARE on.' He tells me to pull over into a parking lot. He gets out of his car, I get out of mine, we look at where my lights used to be and both our mouths are gaping open. There's wires hanging out of these two big holes."

Benson's Acura had fallen prey to the latest craze among thieves -- stealing high-intensity xenon headlights from expensive luxury cars.

Dealers, body shops and insurance companies say the thefts are driven by a lust for the moon-blue lights among urban youths, who transplant them to spice up their cars.

"They're retrofitting these into their Hondas and making them into low-riders," said Richard Black, who owns a body shop in Newark.

While the thefts have been sporadically reported in other parts of the country, the problem is worst in northern New Jersey, New York City and its Westchester County and Connecticut suburbs. Nationwide, 300 to 400 of the lights have been reported stolen over the past year, most of them in the Northeast, according to Acura spokesman Mike Spencer.

"It's an epidemic, totally out of control," said Dominick Pardo, another Newark body shop owner. "I mean, it's just crazy how many of these are getting stolen."

In Denville, thieves ripped 20 headlights from cars at an Acura dealership last year. Similar thefts at a Wayne dealership prompted the business to hire an overnight security guard. And more than 50 lights were taken from cars in Fairfield last year, mostly from shopping centers and office parks.

The headlights can cost $2,000 to $5,000 to replace, depending on how much body damage the thieves inflict while trying to get to the lights.

"A couple years ago it was airbags. Now it's these headlights," said John Tiene, president of the Insurance Council of New Jersey, an industry group. "Any time a manufacturer adds something new to a car, they become the focus of rings that go out and steal them."

He predicted that instead of raising premiums, the insurance industry will absorb the costs of stolen headlights for a year or two, while pressuring manufacturers to make them harder to steal.

Unlike standard headlights, which use a glowing filament, the new bulbs use high-voltage electricity to charge xenon gas inside a sealed tube, creating an intense bluish light.

Police are hard-pressed to make arrests, even when they see a Honda or other low-end car sporting the super-bright lamps.

"You still have to have probable cause to stop them," said Newark Lt. Derek Glenn. "There's no reason to believe it isn't a part they got legally from a store, and you can't pull them over just on the suspicion it's not."

Insurers are taking their own steps. The Insurance Council makes periodic sweeps of body shops and parts stores, asking to see receipts and invoices for xenon lights on the shelves. A light that had been on a car for just a few hundred miles is often smudged and scratched, Tiene said.

 

Hey man good work on the report. But if it will ease us TL/CL owners the new target are the new maximas only because they pop out easier than the ones on the TL/CL's. This is from a kid who hits up a car with these xenons every chance he gets. F*d up but it happens everyday.

 

maybe honda will address the headlight problem in the 2004 TL's

 

When I start hearing about headlight theft on my side of the US, thats when i'm gonna start packing a gun... muthaFocking little *****s will get shot for stealing my headlights. LAUGH AT ME IF YOU WANT BUT I DONT PLAY WITH THEIVES... You wanna steal something from me? You better be prepared to get hurt really bad! I will make an example of the ***** by shooting him in the knee

TO ANY HEADLIGHT THEIVING *****ES---------------> lets hope you have medical insurance...

 

hence, the name MOBBER comes into play

 

if ur side is the west side, then its already been happenin...

 

I'm kinda surprised that this guy got in his car, turn the lights on and drove away, at the same time being absolutely clueless to the fact that his headlights had been destroyed and left in shambles.

 

How about getting some zappers for the headlights so that it will shock the sh1t out of whoever touches them. Like an autotaser..

 

Really. Thats the first thing I look at when I see my car. Every morning I walk outside and I walk to the front of my car and go......thank god there still there. It sucks bigtime.

 

Besides the Zapper idea and shock sensors...

** Is there anything else we can do to secure our headlamps?

Because this will most likely pick up . . .
That would suck....to have 'em ripped off

 

Someone needs to tell Honda to just start building Civics with HID lights. Then there will be no incentive to steal from those cars that have it. I'm old enough to remember when car stereos were being stolen that came from the factory with cassette decks. Now nobody steals them (unless you upgraded to something fancy).

 

Where do you live on the island? So far I haven't heard any thefts being done on the island.

 

HIDs on Civics, that' funny. Can you imagine a car with headlights that are upto 1/3 the cost of the car. HIDs won't come into Civics until they become a few K cheaper. Maybe in 5 years.

In any case, it always cheaper for punks to steal them then buy the option with their car.

 

Thats how the industry works. Reduced cost of goods as production increases. Same thing happened with VCRs and DVDs players, Cars with air conditioning, TVs, Scanners, Computers,.....everything really. So it is only a matter of time.

 

great (more advertisement for copy cat thieves)
the news about HIDs theft is on CNN Headline news -

 

yo that **** is f**Ked up....i got my lights stolen when i parked outsde of my house....acura's facory alarm sucks...didnt even go off...they broke off the bumper and bent in both my side fenders...would have cost 4500 to fix if i didnt go through insurance...i seen a lot of ppl put the tl ligts on accords cus they fit with little modifications....hopefully acura does someting to help prevent this

 

Just read this in my local paper today. Hopefully the public exposure will make Acura pay more heed to this problem, just as exposure of the tranny problem did. I'd have been willing to pay a little more money for more wiring to keeps the ballasts further from the HID bulbs.