I've had it!

Okay, here's the deal.

Some of you will remember two of my autocross wheels being stolen and epicly recovered. That was crazy. Broad day light. Five minutes alone. Gone.

About a month ago, my wife's car broken into. Been messing with the glass people until yesterday to finally get that fixed right.

Well, this morning I woke up, no kidding, the Celica on cinder blocks- literally. And the MR2 broken into as well. Now, I live in a good neighborhood. I don't say this to brag or anything, but houses here start at around a half million. My house is probably worth around 600K.

Yeah, we're in the city, and yeah, break ins are pretty common. That's one thing, but this is different. And I've had it. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm going to do something. Started by writing to my City Council member asking what the berkeley he's going to do about it. It's not right that we have to live with this crap. It isn't too much to ask that between, say, 2 and 4 AM, when all this crap happens, a cop might drive through the neighborhood.

In the mean time, I'm going to figure out what I can do. Obviously locking lug nuts. I'd have done it before, but nothing like that has ever happened here before. Just break ins and whatever might have been left in the car is ripped off. I'm good about not leaving anything. Doesn't keep them from breaking in to check, but they don't get anything. But this is new. And I'm pissed.

The Celica this morning:

Got lucky and snagged glass at a junk yard. I had just put new wheels on it (damn) and luckily still had the Rewinds, so had something to put on. Don't have any clue how I'm going to fix the trunk lock.

Here's Tom Celica a couple of hours ago.

Work was cool about it. I had a project I had to do, so went in at around 7 after the cops left and left by 9. Took a sick day and got everything together.

Not as lucky with the MR2. Glass has to come from Toyota, they couldn't find any after market glass anywhere. Just as well, but it'll take a week to get here. Great.

They ripped the front off the stereo in the MR2. Not the face plate- that was off and in the glove box. They ripped off the part it mounts to. Too stupid to know that the radios bolt into these cars. Amazingly, I snapped everything back together and it's good as new. Ha! At least that worked out well.

Sorry. Ranting. Stopping now. Very mad. Glad I have an autocross tomorrow. That'll help my attitude.

WHAT THE E36 M3???? I've honestly got no words.

Sounds like the guys who took the wheels are trying to get even with you for them getting caught

They didn't get caught. Wheels were recovered from a dude who bought them on craigslist. Guy who stole them doesn't even know I have them back. Guy who had them doesn't know where I live. And if he was retaliating, they'd have smashed all the windows.

I don't know how many cars were hit, but I took this pic on the way into the office.

So they weren't targeting me. Just some dicks out steeling wheels. They were prepared, obviously. I'm sure they cased my car before hand. The guy who took the race wheels before I'm pretty sure was one of the scrap metal guys who haunts the alleys here. He saw them and grabbed them. Just an opportunity thing. Probably not a bad guy, just a jerk. This was planned. And these were bad guys.

Man I feel for you. That sucks.

I hope whoever did this dies a horrible slow painful death.

I hate thieves. I grew up in a rough neighborhood. When I was around 17 people where breaking into cars in the area. Nothing taken except for loose change. They only opened unlocked cars so no broken glass. One firiday night I sat out on the front porch in the dark and around one in the morning three kids came walking up the middle of the street. One on each side of the street pulling door handles. I waited until they touched my door and as soon as they did I jumped of the porch and as soon as they saw me they took off in different directions. I picked one and gave chase, he was just out of my reach and a little bit faster than me. After about a block I gave up.

I've had my windows busted out, dog E36 M3 wiped all over my hood and under the door handles and someone set my car on fire. The old sparkler in the center console trick.

Short of staying up all night with a shotgun my advice is to lean heavily on the city. Become a pain in their ass.

nicksta43 wrote: Short of staying up all night with a shotgun my advice is to lean heavily on the city. Become a pain in their ass.

Agreed. Started. Will continue.

In reply to fast_eddie_72:

What kind of crazy stupid freakishly strong block can hold a suburban up turned on there side like that?

Time to move. To hell with living in a city. Get a few acres out in the sticks, a big ugly dog, and a 12ga with a flashlight mount.

berkeley these guys. There's a special place in Hell for them. Stealing wheels is such a cheesedick thing to do.

I'd be camping on the porch with my 1911 from now on. I'm mad for you.

New address change or 2-6 people on duty with a 30-30, Hope the best for ya!!!

Aeromoto wrote: Time to move. To hell with living in a city. Get a few acres out in the sticks, a big ugly dog, and a 12ga with a flashlight mount.

Man, I would like to. I've had it. But the boy has one more year in his high school and the girl has five more years in one of the best schools in the state. If we left the city it would be a lot for them to give up. Not fair. I wrote the mother of all notes to the city tonight. I know they read them because I got a response from the nice note I wrote before. Going to do like niksta said. And getting the neighbors to help. We'll be such a pain in the ass they'll have to do something. Plenty of cops to write me a ticket in front of my house the DAY AFTER my registration expired, when I had the new sticker in the glove box. Plenty of cops to run speed traps. Get them on the damn street at night.

Hate to say it, but an alarm would have prevented this, so that's likely going to happen. They'll break in, but I don't think they'd stay long enough to take wheels. The alarm on my wife's car woke me up, so they sure as hell wouldn't stay once I came out. Or they'd wish they hadn't.

God I'm mad.

And the hell of it, they were E36 M3ty wheels. Drag DR-54s. Who steels that E36 M3? The tires cost more than the wheels! I know, they don't know the difference. But damn, when I balanced them, they had so much wobble in them I couldn't believe it. Go steel something worth a damn and leave my E36 M3 alone! Now I'm so worried about it I'll put wheel locks on my 14" Rewinds.

nicksta43 wrote: In reply to fast_eddie_72: What kind of crazy stupid freakishly strong block can hold a suburban up turned on there side like that?

Dunno, but those are the same blocks they used on Tom Celica, and I can tell you this, they weigh about 50 lbs. each. REALLY heavy.

This kept most people away from Max Rockitanski's car

I'm thinking you hook the car up to an electric fence zapper. Security lights on motion sensors are also pretty effective.

Keith Tanner wrote: I'm thinking you hook the car up to an electric fence zapper. Security lights on motion sensors are also pretty effective.

I have a few ideas like this brewing. If anyone has any specific projects, I'd love to see them. If not, I'll have to make an instructable. Damn it. I built a mousetrap that uses an infrared beam. I should have put my devious mind more into this before now.

Damn, that sucks!

I do have to ask, but $600K and you have to park on the berkeleying street? Sounds like you're paying way too much/getting too little.

I have a two car garage, off street parking and I live in the city (right next door to the area known as felony flats) and I paid about half what you did.

I'd probably try to find a way to get the cars off the street as they are likely known to the thieves (who are likely local to the neighborhood) Kids who come from good neighborhoods are just as likely to do something like this as kids from the 'hood. Especially if it is amateur hour.

I second the motion lights and a camera (that works at night obviously and can handle the change in light) A remotely triggered alarm with a siren might scare the crap out of them, if you catch them in the act. Another thought would be to rig an explosive inflator to a punching dummy that would suddenly pop-up behind them in the dark, or something that might drop down from a tree or something. The trick is making sure it is hidden during the day, durable and won't accidentally go off and hurt someone (let alone someone in your family)

Browse around the hackaday.com, instructables.com and makezine.com sites to get some ideas on projects that you can use to build something to mess with the berkeley-tards that are doing this to you.

fast_eddie_72 wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: I'm thinking you hook the car up to an electric fence zapper. Security lights on motion sensors are also pretty effective.

I have a few ideas like this brewing. If anyone has any specific projects, I'd love to see them. If not, I'll have to make an instructable. Damn it. I built a mousetrap that uses an infrared beam. I should have put my devious mind more into this before now.

Any country kid should be able to help with the electric fence trick. It's pretty much standard fare Heck, I've heard stories from Janel's family about electrifying the kitchen garbage can to keep the dog out. You could even run it off a car battery.

Seriously, a motion-sensitive light is a really good deterrent. Much better than a light that's on all the time. Of course, that means you need some control over where the car is parked, and you'll get some falses.

Good luck

turboswede wrote: Damn, that sucks! I do have to ask, but $600K and you have to park on the berkeleying street? Sounds like you're paying way too much/getting too little.

This is what I was thinking. Not that in any way/shape/form do you deserve it, but its not unexpected leaving a stickered up car parked in the street.

Good luck finding a solution.

I have a garage- filled with the '72 Capri. And an off street parking spot- filled with my wife's car. These houses just weren't built with five cars in mind. Yeah, I know. And I've been a good sport about break ins, but these jerks had enough time to drive around the neighborhood jacking up cars and leaving them on blocks. They keep coming back to my neighborhood because they keep getting away with it and never see a cop. I think it's time to take some of the ticket writers off the day shift.

I'd be hacked too. I feel bad for you.

I have played with fence chargers in the past. A 1000 volt unit will cost under 100.00, from a farm supply store or on line, and can run off a car battery for a long time. You will have to put some kind of a ground rod into the dirt, but no big deal. Then you pray the jerks take a piss on your car. Fun times.

Security cameras from midnight to 6AM. Razor blades epoxy'd to inside of wheels facing "handward." Win.