Whee! My Player Got Stolen!

I just love East Dallas, smash and grab, took my riocar

No telling what it'll cost to replace just the riocar not to mention the damage left behind:






one of my friends said (with a straight face) "Hey, look on the bright side, now you can get a better head unit"

Sorry to hear that! Now what kind of friend is that? You can tell theives are definately getting smarter to what the empeg is when they take your sled too. Make sure to report the serial number stolen!

GAH! Not out of a WRX! Man, i'm really sorry. I've been the victim of one empeg theft and one sled theft. Sucks and there's not much more to it.

Do you have any pics of the setup you had before it was stolen?

You'd think the least they could do would be to just break the glass to get in. That really sucks. Did you make sure to get a full police report and everything? Rest assured your police department won't actually go out and investigate anything, but you'll need one for insurance. If you don't think it's covered by your insurance, be sure to call your agent and have them check. I've got a good enough insurance agent that they work to find a way to have things covered for me.

This does remind me I've been meaning to make a list of all my serial numbers for everything. At least here in Berkeley, all the pawn shops are required to check anything with a serial number in the database of stolen goods. Definitly worth spending half an hour getting together before your car/house/appartment gets broken into.

Matthew

I feel for you.

But why oh why do people insist on leaving their empegs in their car?

You'd think the least they could do would be to just break the glass to get in.

If you put a flathead screwdriver between the window and door frame and twist, the window will often shatter cleanly and drop 90% of the glass inside the car, which makes it look less like he's trying to break in, as there won't be a pile of glass on the ground, just like the window's down. Either it didn't work or he didn't know what he was doing, resulting in a lot of damage to the car. Nice. So in addition to being a thief, he's also incompetent.

yeah i reported the serial number, the one on the box i am guessing is the same as the one on the player right?

I was only inside for about 2 hours that's why i did not take the player inside with me. Didn't figure they would strike in broad daylight.

Mine was stolen in broad daylight in a residental neighborhood with people walking around who actually saw it happening, alarm going off with busted window and all, and did nothing about it, in Berkeley, CA. I'm not surprised at any theft after that.

If you put a flathead screwdriver between the window and door frame and twist, the window will often shatter cleanly and drop 90% of the glass inside the car

<ponder>Hmmm... I wonder what Bitt's previous occupation might have been...</ponder>

- trs

Either it didn't work or he didn't know what he was doing, resulting in a lot of damage to the car. Nice. So in addition to being a thief, he's also incompetent.

I dunno. Looks like it worked. What does the thief care about a f''ed-up A pillar?

Assuming this WRX had something like the stock alarm system, smashing the glass would likely set off the motion sensor. So, with frameless windows, the screwdriver seems the logical choice. Perhaps if the thief carried a bigger screwdriver, there would be fewer dents.

The fact that it was stolen is no surprise. Sounds like this was a place where jakobstone parks all the time. Easy to set up a lookout...a 45-second job. I do have a clinical intererest in a few things:

- Stock alarm?
- Looks like they left another HU-- didn't try to get the 6-screw DIN Mount out?
- Broke the passenger side. Did they dive in, pop hood and disconnect battery/alarm, or just reach inside car and work the Empeg free?

In my recent Seattle-Boston-Seattle drive, I took the minimalist approach to food and shelter to save money and save time -- less unpacking of car, shifting Empeg around, etc. I either went through drive-throughs (how American!) or picked someplace like Subway where I could see the car from inside the store. Assessing risk was interesting -- questions like "How quickly could a bad person in Medicine Hat become aware that I have an Empeg in my car if I choose to take a bathroom break in this Subway?" When you park in the same place repeatedly, the risk score goes way up, I think.

I feel for you!

My first stereo theft was a crowbar-into-the-rear-hatch job, where they did similar kinds of damage to the hatch as you now have to the A-pillar. My second was a smash-window-and-grab when I was just in the restaurant for two hours.

I find it interesting that they left the removable-face stereo in place... On one of my thefts they broke in just to take the removable-face stereo, being sure that they could get a replacement face cheap.

My only stereo theft so far (knock on wood) occured deep underground in a parking garage downtown. We were going to see some sort of show, and there's this massive garage. The normal level I park in was full, so I had to drive down a level, which was practically deserted. I was thrilled that I was less likely to get door dinged, but the thief probably had extensive, uninterrupted access to my car.

That stereo was a then-ten year old Pioneer single-CD player that was starting to flake out, so I wasn't too pissed at it's being stolen. I was more pissed that the thief got in the car apparently by slim-jimming the passenger door in such a way that the mechanism wouldn't lock again. I had to get that fixed. The thief also made off with three CDs and the whole mounting bracket for the stereo. Again, more money to replace all the parts.

These days, with the empeg, I'll try to make an assessment of how likely it is to be stolen and bring it in in those cases. The one place where I'd like to take it with me is when I travel on business, leaving the car in airport parking. Unfortunately, my bags are already pretty tight, and I'd be just as worried about damaging the empeg in transit (or having my baggage lost with the empeg inside).

whenever i fly i have my empeg, my books, my ipod and my gameboy in my backpack/carryon. i never take a chance of losing any of my babies.

.. when I travel on business, leaving the car in airport parking. Unfortunately, my bags are already pretty tight...

I got a laptop bag that is able to accomodate a laptop and a mobile printer. The printer side of the bag is the perfect width for the empeg. A little foam magic to make the fit tight and I'm golden. You may want to check on something like that.

Depending on how far it is to the airport, I'd say just leave it at home. I'm only about 15 minutes from the airport, so that's my solution -- if I'm not just having someone drop me off in the first place.

3 hrs. to the airport where prices are reasonable...the empeg comes with me

Yup, mine stays at home when I fly. Not worth the anguish of thinking about it sitting in my care in a parking garage for the whole visit. And I'd rather not risk it by carrying it all over the nation with me. I'm clumsy enough as it is.

Besides, it's really no fun having to fish it out to show the TSA goons that it's not a detonator (as if they'd know what one looked like). I leave mine at home too.

-Zeke

it's not a detonator (as if they'd know what one looked like)

Really. If I'm good enough to cram a bomb into a pager or a cell phone, you'd think I'd be smart enough to also build in an LCD that looks like it's really functioning. It's not like they call it to see if it really works.

And, in fact, one time, my pager battery died and I couldn't turn it on. They told me to just go on.

To quote the master:

"The authorities know they can't make an airplane completely safe, too many people have access. You'll notice the drug smugglers don't seem to have trouble getting their little packages on board! And God Bless Them Too!"

-George Carlin

I don't miss the joke, but, honestly, airlines couldn't care less if you've got drugs. If they happen to find them, I think they're supposed to call the cops, maybe, but they can't do anything themselves. Remember when the airline found some pot on Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown and they got away by boarding their plane?

Schitt, when I go on vacation, my empeg goes with me. Along with the travel adapter and a good set of computer speakers. My speakers live in my luggage, which ALWAYS results in my bags being searched, but that's fine. At least I have decent music wherever I go. Most recently, it went to Jamaica, where I was the only person in a 200 mile radius that didn't have to listen to reggae 24/7.