Owner's worst nightmare... a VX break-in... the photos

[Grant Eaton]

I was going through some old photos tonight and decided to share my VX break-in photos from November 2002. This break-in occured in my condo garage on a Friday night. They stole my laptop which was in a bookbag on the passenger floor. The dudes also left a crowbar in my car (the one they used to smash the window). The officer who took my police report just took the crowbar and said nonchalantly, "we probably won't even bother to fingerprint it... these things usually don't have fingerprints, anyway."

The interesting part of the story is that the thieves came back on Sunday at 5:00 pm when I was in the garage vacuuming out all the broken glass. They were two thugs, one age 20 and the other age 32. They used a crow-bar to pry up the motorized garage door in order to gain entry to the building. Presumably, they were returning to take my car stereo since they knew the VX was now an even easier target from their exploit a couple nights before.

When they saw me, they ran out into the alley in back. I called the police, who arrived quickly and caught them within 15 minutes. The guys ran a full mile, but the officer was able to ID them based on my 911 description. I was put in a squad car and taken down to ID them. The guys had someone else's car stereo in their back back and they confessed their burglarly to the police saying that they were "just looking for a shortcut to the street." (A crowbar comes in real handy when you're trying to make a "shortcut" through a private garage, don't you agree?)

The police booked the burglars on felony burglary and they were taken to jail. Both were released after 72 hours. The Seattle prosecutor informed me that it will be 18-24 months before they determine *if* they will file charges against the burglars.

So, we have two burglars a homeowner (me) watches burglarize his home, they confess to their crime, and the city lets them loose for a couple years before deciding if they should be prosecuted! Justice for everyone but the victim, eh?

Four months later, someone broke into the garage again and stole my neighbor's vehicle. It was probably the same guys, or maybe their friends. Anyway, that's crime and punishment in the U.S. I never leave anything in the car anymore.

[paultvx]

Grant,

That's the justice system in America. In general, drug related offenses carry a much heavier penalty compare to equal or greater crimes. So next time you manage to get thieves arrested, better hope they happen to have some weed on them. I'm surpised by how quickly the police responded to your call. In most major cities, they don't consider break-ins to be worthy of their time. My last car was broken into twice. Once in Portland and once during my 2 years in San Francisco. A friend had his Eclipse broken into twice within a year. Not a single officer responded in each of those incidents. One of those incidents, the thieves left behind five very good finger prints and several drops of blood. The police was not interested at all. They sent me a form in the mail and that was about it.

It doesn't look like your VX sustained too much damage. I should post pictures of my last car after it was broken into for the second time. Not counting all the items lost and damages to the interior, I had to replace the entire front end of the car... hood, fender, grill, headlights, etc. The repairs were expensive enough I'm surprised my insurance didn't opt to total it. Could've bought a new car for what the repairs added up to in the end.

Community garages are the worst when it comes to security. All of the break-ins mentioned above took place in such garages. They could very well have been inside jobs. It was also very difficult to keep the shared garage secure since some neighbors were quite careless about leaving the door open or ajar. Once the thieves were inside they had plenty of time to do their work since their activities were pretty well hidden from passers-by on the street. Looking back, I probably would've been better off parking on the street where street traffic passing by and exposure would have reduced the amount of time these low-lifes had to break into my car.

One thing I have learned, and I'm sure you have too, is to never leave anything in the car... not even a piece of clothing. After my break-ins, I learned to make a point of leaving the car bare. I took time to reveal to the crooks that there was nothing to steal... like removing the rear hatch carpet to show that there weren't any stereo systems installed in the spare well. On top of that I also installed a overly redundant Clifford alarm system to make it as time consuming as possible to break-in. At the time of the break-in I did have a pretty good Clifford system, but because my car was on the lower level of a underground garage, they were able to defeat the system without fear of being discovered (tore up the front end of the car and cut the battery cable). So... no alarm system can be completely theft-proof, but the harder you make it for them... the safer you are. The DEI ESP series and Compustar systems have integrated pagers which allows you to montior your vehicle from a distance of up to a quarter mile. If I were to get an alarm system, it'd be one of those. They're expensive... but gotta pay to play I suppose.

Anyway... best way to protect yourself is to try to think like a crook... time is their best friend/worst enemy.

[lostemple]

When living in NYC, I passed a car on the way to a club and it had a peice of paper taped to the passanger side window. The paper read "NO RADIO IN CAR". On my way back from the club, I saw the same car with the passager side window smashed in with a message on the oppisite side of the original peice of paper. It read "Just Checking".

The best way to avoid breakins is no be as inconspicuous as possible. That is kind of hard with our stand out vehicles. The best, is a large bright blinking alarm light.

[MrCrowley]

You guys need to do what I did. After several years of trying to get by in cities which I despise, I finally got the wife to move way out in the middle of nowhere. Best thing we ever did. I drive 100 miles round trip to work in Huntsville Alabama. Our relationship is better, people are nice, no crime, I enjoy peace and quiet, and even have sunburn in very inconvenient places right now due to having a pool that overlooks nature's majesty, and enjoy a LOW cost of living. I have a home alarm system, and motion detectors in my barn. If one goes off at night, I know, and pull a 30-06 out from under the bed and "see who it is" via scope. Even the sheriff told me to "drag em in the house" or there is also alot of land and you have a shovel. I like this lifestyle and feel much safer as I can take care of myself and family in a way which I was trained to do by the ol' US Army. I like to call this principle "natural selection" as Darwin so eloquently wrote about. America is getting to posh and will eventually fail. Most of the time it is my cats or a wild animal. Also, being an intelligent individual it is all too easy to outwit "bubba" and "jefro" so I never have any problems. I will never leave here unless the shoal creek valley becomes overpopulated (not likely) and am thinking of investment property near Huntville as stuff is cheap and the city is growing.

[paultvx]

MrCrowley...

What you suggested is exactly the same as the conclusion I've arrived at after years of city living. Been spending quite a bit of time outdoors this spring and drove through many small towns... What a difference. I'm definitely going to strive to achieve what you've done. 100 miles a day will definitely rack up fast on the VX, but one thing I've learned so far is that you just can't have everything... something's gotta give.

You're spot-on about the advantages of country living though. I actually had a discussion about this with my bud today. It seems that people become less tolerant and care less about each other as they become closer geographically. Out in the country where people are far apart geographically, they seem to treat each other with much more respect and consideration.

[MrCrowley]

Go for it. As long as you can plan ahead and find a decent job nearby- whats the worse that can happen? Youll get in shape, drive your VX alot which you love, and live a more civilized life. Oh I forgot to tell you about my neighbors when I moved in here. They are great! They helped me unload the moving truck, mowed my yard proper (not acreage- just front and back), brought over about 6 meals worth of food, and invited us to church(which I dont do), and we all watch who goes up and down the road for each other. People think Im weird as I have one of those jap trucks though. LOL But Ive seen 1 other VX here in Pulaski, TN so mine is unique here.