Title says it all in my opinion. To preface, NO, my empeg is still safe here with me. But that's all I have left of my car stereo system, or my car for that matter.
I went to bed at about 12am last night. Generally feeling pretty god after some hard work at home to unwind from office stresses. Wake up briefl at 6:30am tired but feeling pretty good as I get comfortable for another two hours of sleep. GIrlfriend was getting ready to leave for a course downtown.
She leaves the house just before 7am by which time I'm already asleep again. But not for long. Because at about 7:01am she's running up the stairs muttering something about my car not being "outside."
"Where's your car, where's your car?" - it must just be parked in another aisle I dream for a split second, thinking I'm walking out of a local Home Depot. The problem is I'm at home. I live in a semi-detached house. We had two cars parked on our half of the driveway, one behind the other. Oh oh.
I throw some pants on and calmly go down the stairs and outside - in my bear feet, so apparently still not thinking straight. It didn't take me more than one step out the door to notice her car parked half-way onto the sreet and a 2700lbs red (1995) Acura Integra GSR missing from where it was parked the night before (between her can and our garage door).
So I yell out the obvious four letter word. Twice. Did I say yell? DId I say loud? Wake the dead loud. Of course now I'm looking closer at her car. front bumper smashed on the passenger side. Dented, bent, cracked. RED and black scrape markson it. I know where this is going. Inside her car, a gutted hole whee her radio sed to be. The one night she actually left her face plate in the car. Oops. Doen't look like they took anything else from her's.
Call the cops and tell the story. 30 minuts later a cruiser and offiecr are here to take a report. No broken glass so he doesn't know how they broke into the cars - at least that's what goes into the report. Whatever. Answer some questions, provide some paperwork and he files the report over the phone with his station.
He and my GF are leaving ad I'm now on the phone with my dad. Then I have a thought. Hmmm.. He car is automatic and was still in "Park" when I saw it. Thieves don't work alone, why didn't they take it? I'm guessing there's a problem - remember the smashed bumper? So I ask my dad to hold and run outside with a bad feeling. Sure enough as I ge out the door my GF is getting out of her car. I ask her, "won't start, right?" "Right"
I test the ke and it just spins with no action from the starter. Shifter stuck solid. The plastic cover from under the steering column hd been ripped away I just noticed. Likely they tried to force the ignition on this Civic and damaged it. And/or they pushed the car back HARD while it was in park ad screwed something up in the transmission so now the car isn't quite in park and cuts the starter.
Police thinks maybe they came for hr car and ended up taking mine. Not a chance. They likely wanted both, but my car was no freak occuranec and no joy ride. There isn't likely someone smart enough to get things going so quickly without doing stupid things like break windows, that's taking my care only for joy ride. I have no doubt it's in pieces now in someone's garage.
Again, red Acura Integra. No GSR badge on it, but to anyone that knows the models well, there are tell-tale factory signs of what trim level it is. 17" aluminum wheels with nice summer tires (bought 1.5 years ago). Had the car completely painted and repair work done 2 years ago when I installed the empeg. Clarion Pro Audio head unit, empeg sled, JL: Audio tweeters, mids and woofers in the rear. JL Audio Microsub 8.2 in the back with JL 300/4 and 250/1 amps in a custom-built stealth enclosure in the back. Ouch. Oh, my insurance policy? Covers a maximum of $500 for in-car audio/entertainment equipment. That wasn't a problem when I was living in the house and are I was in when I did the install.
It gets better. In the trunk, been there for a long time unfortunately, a nice baseball glove I bought las year, a bat and softball. Ok, who give's a rat's ass about the ball, but he glove was well over $100 and the bat over $200. Ok, still peanuts compared to the car audio stuff. Something I normally don't leave in the car, but I had just been porting around with me recently... My Nikon E5700. Argh. With battery grip and a 512MB CF card. FULL OF PICTURES I hadn't unloaded yet!
I doubt the thieves knew this stuff was with the car. It's probably going to be a nice bonus and nothing more. I don't know what the market is for hot baseball gloves, but I'm sure they can easily resell the electric bits.
Does it suck to be me? But, on Tuesday I did find out that I won a quarterly feature-suggestion competition at work for a $500 (Canadian) prize. Whooop-tee-friggen-do (now).
My car was solid even though it had very high mileage. I fear I'm going to get SWEET FA from the insurance company when all is said and done and that I won't be able to get a replacement without going into debt. I had owned my car free and clear for quite a few years.
And that's my sad story for today. Once again, typing from an IR keyboard sitting on my bed with my computer on the floor (temporary). Sorry for any typos or missing characters. I know there must still be a ton of them.
Bruno
Ontario plates ABTJ 952