Let's talk about stolen cars

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Originally Posted By: MalfunctionProne


They actually asked when the last time I changed the oil was. Really? Oil?


My guess is, they wanted to know if someone else was in possession of the keys other than you recently. Perhaps they know of someone with a history at a local oil change place, or have noticed a pattern of cars being stolen after being serviced at a particular shop. An oil change shop would have access to your key for a period of time, probably has your address show up on the work order, and knows what your car looks like.


Plausible. They also want to throw you mentally for a curve to see if you're lying abou the whole thing.

It'd be like if your kid went missing, god forbid. They'd ask what he was wearing but then ask what you fed him for breakfast. They'd intermingle bizzarro questions with the standard ones about estranged spouse/ family and watch for your reaction as much as they write down your response.

 

[MalfunctionProne]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Originally Posted By: MalfunctionProne


They actually asked when the last time I changed the oil was. Really? Oil?


My guess is, they wanted to know if someone else was in possession of the keys other than you recently. Perhaps they know of someone with a history at a local oil change place, or have noticed a pattern of cars being stolen after being serviced at a particular shop. An oil change shop would have access to your key for a period of time, probably has your address show up on the work order, and knows what your car looks like.


Plausible. They also want to throw you mentally for a curve to see if you're lying abou the whole thing.

It'd be like if your kid went missing, god forbid. They'd ask what he was wearing but then ask what you fed him for breakfast. They'd intermingle bizzarro questions with the standard ones about estranged spouse/ family and watch for your reaction as much as they write down your response.


I got slightly flustered because I changed the oil myself. My wife was with me, as it is our car. She had to ask me. I had to hold back smart words. Not even asking about an oil change sticker.. about the oil itself. "When was the oil last changed." By that logic, I guess I stole my own car. I did not appreciate that. This also was the person at the front desk. I offered to show pictures of the car, they said they did not need that. I look forward to speaking to the detectives "when my report is ready." Monday. Holiday weekend was cited. Newark is very, very condescending and unhelpful. They are a big city but I can't see that as an excuse.

I would have felt more comfortable if they asked outright if anyone else had keys. I showed her the keys on my pocket. I felt like they were skeptical the car could get stolen from right in front of the building. Never had this happen before. The picture of the black car you saw was over the weekend. It seems as if mine got stolen the night after that one was removed. Literally across the street.

Apartment building has a camera. Even if it worked, the angle of the hill and front courtyard would have completely blocked only the area where the car was.

I would be out looking for it if I had even the slightest reason to believe it would be somewhere. Nothing on Craigslist yet. (Have not checked New York City craigslist. Should I?)

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: MalfunctionProne
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Two days ago, my car was stolen from right in front of my apartment building overnight in this dump of a city. I have never had a car stolen before in my life. It is now reported stolen, and I wonder if I will ever see my car again.

I doubt they are even looking for it. Has anyone else ever had a vehicle stolen? Should I call the County and State police as well, not just Newark? Any chance the car will be recovered?


That's not a fun situation to have to deal with. At least you were not car jacked. I read somewhere a lot of cars were stolen in Newark as its close to the ports and the cars are shipped overseas.

I assume the car was locked? Does it have a chip key?

 

[MalfunctionProne]

Originally Posted By: Donald
Originally Posted By: MalfunctionProne
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Two days ago, my car was stolen from right in front of my apartment building overnight in this dump of a city. I have never had a car stolen before in my life. It is now reported stolen, and I wonder if I will ever see my car again.

I doubt they are even looking for it. Has anyone else ever had a vehicle stolen? Should I call the County and State police as well, not just Newark? Any chance the car will be recovered?


That's not a fun situation to have to deal with. At least you were not car jacked. I read somewhere a lot of cars were stolen in Newark as its close to the ports and the cars are shipped overseas.

I assume the car was locked? Does it have a chip key?


Yes, the car was locked. Unfortunately, I had no further antitheft measures. Cars going forward will NEVER have this happen again with me.

That, and I hear Hondas of that vintage are ridiculously easy to steal. (Push a window off the tracks, supposedly.)

This picture shows the taken car and just about exactly where it was when lifted. I live in an apartment complex with a red brick face of the building next door to a church. That is the gate you see.

 

[jeepman3071]

My neighbor had his Nissan Titan stolen a few years ago. It was locked in his driveway with no keys in it. The truck was found a few days later on a logging road in the next town over. There was not a straight body panel on it. It ended up being totaled, but the thieves weren't caught for a little while. There were more incidents in the surrounding towns of vehicles being stolen then dumped in the woods after being thrashed. They finally found the people doing it a few months later.

 

[Spazdog]

Just out of curiosity, I don't need the exact details on how-to and don't want to provide that to any would be thieves...

But how are they getting cars with passive RFID keys?

Are these cars with aftermarket remote starts with a spare RFID key in a bypass module?

I had a client tow in her passive RFID key equipped Honda Odyssey. Wouldn't start. It would turn over so it wasn't my work, but it wouldn't start. The green key light on the dash just mocked me by flashing.

It was just a corroded ground on the keysense immobilizer ring. Little clean up work and it worked just fine. But I do not see how these late model cars are getting stolen by just hot-wiring them.

 

[Donald]

I read an article in the NYT that said the rate of car thefts dropped off the scale once the CHIP keys were being used. So thieves were either car jacking or stealing older vehicles and selling them for scrap. In NY I think if the vehicle is over 10 years old or worth less than $1000 (something like that) it can be sold for scrap with no title.

 

[eljefino]

They say the most stolen car is (still) a 1996 Accord, which was tops on the list ten years ago. The cars still run and they're still worth a bunch in parts. Immobilizers came on force in the late 90's.

Are Escalade front clips still popular for bro-trucks?

 

[bubbatime]

Dude you live in one of the biggest dumps in the country and you drive the most stolen car in the country. It only a matter of time... you are lucky it wasn't stolen sooner. As for the lack of police interest, what do you expect? You live in one of the biggest dumps in the country... police that work large, dangerous cities are a little less friendly and helpful than small town America cops. Not defending their actions, but when you see every single day what they see, you become a different person.

When Darla's gold fish was stolen, she expects the police to drop everything and find her fish. When grandma's purse is stolen, she expects the police to drop everything and find her purse. When your car is stolen, you expect the police to drop everything and find your car. You are just a case, just a number, in the grand scheme of things. Your case goes to the bottom of the pile. Sucks, but that's how the real world works.

You want things to change? Move out of that cesspool in New Jersey to a nice small town somewhere else.

 

[eljefino]

We used to have a police chief who was always on TV, we called him "Media Mike" Chitwood. At one press conference he was complaining about bums or grafittiers or other n'er do wells and threw his hands up, asking rhetorically "What do you want me to do about it?" All I could think of in reply was, call some real cops?

 

[MalfunctionProne]

Who thinks I will see this Honda again.

 

[Bluestream]

Originally Posted By: MalfunctionProne
Who thinks I will see this Honda again.


You'll see it again, but as a worthless piece of Junk. And the Police don't have time to look for your car; it either turns up or it doesn't.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: MalfunctionProne
Who thinks I will see this Honda again.



I'd make other plans and if it comes back consider it Xmas.

Rent a car "for a week" and start shopping or seeing what's out there.

 

[Win]

I had my new Suzuki stolen the first day of my sophomore year of high school. This was particularly vexing, since I had worked all summer pumping gas and hauling trash to pay for it. Never recovered, of course. I count it as a positive experience though, as it drove home at an early age that the distinction between people who work, and those that take from people who work, is real and not some abstract concept they talk about it in school or on TV.

I had a big Chevy flat bed stolen from my used car lot one night, and it was actually recovered a few years later in some field in another state, blown head gasket and all.

Other than that truck, and my wife's I phone last month, I've never recovered any stolen property in decades of thefts, so I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you. And I wouldn't want it back, anyway. A good car insurance policy will not require you to take the car back if it is found.

Petit theft like this is just not a big deal to police, so I wouldn't expect much from them other than taking a report. If they find it, it will likely be because they blundered across it as part of some other crime.

 

[Jarlaxle]

It's gone forever. By now, it's either in pieces in a chop shop or on a ship in a container headed south. Start shopping.

 

[paulo57509]

I had my old Legend stolen out of the park-and-ride lot here in town back in 2009.

A few months later the local police department calls me and tells me they found my car in Denver.

Having the car stolen is really the hassle free part. If you want it back and it's in East xxx-xxxx Egypt your hassles are just starting.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/1633336/Choosing_an_Auto_Transport_Com

It was also a PITA finding new, OEM ignition switch parts. It helped to have a great source for OEM Honda parts.

 

[CourierDriver]

Just leave a German Shepard in your car at night....

 

[dailydriver]

Sadly THIS is the reason most of the state of Joyzee has the HIGHEST car insurance rates in the WHOLE country, STILL, despite the strides all of the special task force units in the urban areas have made in recent years.

It is also the main reason WHY my rates have now dropped to less than half of what they were when I lived about 7 miles from the op's mentioned city's southwestern border, just by moving here.

 

[MalfunctionProne]

Originally Posted By: dailydriver
Sadly THIS is the reason most of the state of Joyzee has the HIGHEST car insurance rates in the WHOLE country, STILL, despite the strides all of the special task force units in the urban areas have made in recent years.

It is also the main reason WHY my rates have now dropped to less than half of what they were when I lived about 7 miles from the op's mentioned city's southwestern border, just by moving here.

I feel I would be wise not to move to Philly? Is (auto) crime still a problem in Philadelphia County..

Been thinking of moving after this. Going to go Monday to get that report.. and talk to a Detective, preferably from Auto Squad, about this. Will mention how car may have been "marked".. as odd as this may sound, someone left a beach towel on it - twice - before it got jacked.

I can already hear the censoreds saying "Why do you want to talk to a detective, you already made the report."

1. Pictures. They did not even ask to see.
2. Let them know how the line of questioning about oil changes offended me. Logic aside... Ask me if anyone else had a key. Or used the car. Or touched it.
3. The black car I threw the pic up of, across the street.
4. My own personal plea, and peace of mind.
5. My intent to claim the car, if found.
6. Personal statement as to my livelihood impact.
7. The towels.

And, I want them to say what they want to say: "You parked directly in front of your apartment. What did you think would happen." I want to hear them say how they really feel.

Newark and I are done.. I know people in Norristown, PA. Might be time to move. Either now or in 2015.

 

[MalfunctionProne]

Or Norriton. I forget. May have got that city wrong.

Definitely moving soon.