In Sept. my Valentine One was stolen from my WRX, parked out on the street in front of my apartment. I know... stupid of me to leave it mounted in the first place. Thing was, they rifled through the car, pulled the rear seats down, and took nothing else. Left my two JL Audio amps under the seat, 10" sub in an easily removable box, skateboard in the back, a tool kit, and various other mostly worthless items. I figured they just did a quick look through and didn't see the amps, and couldn't get to the sub because my kite buggy was sorta on top of it. Had my empeg inside of course, so they didn't get that. THE KICKER - no broken glass. No punched locks. No signs of forced entry period. Great.

Yesterday, I got that same sick feeling as I walked up to my car and saw things laying on my seat that I know I didn't leave there. This time they took the JL amps, and ripped out my ash tray for no reason whatsoever, and again left everything else, pretty much the same stuff was in the car last time (minus the V1 which now comes inside with me in the empeg bag), but strewn about. No signs of forced entry.

So I'm left with the conclusion that they'll be back for my sub at some point, and that there's not shite I can do about it. I never paid to have an alarm installed on this car because I couldn't afford it, and they are more of an annoyance with false alarms and whatnot that no one pays attention to anyway. While I have a feeling it wouldn't deter these thieves, that's now looking like a mistake.

WHAT DO I DO?! I'm seriously contemplating whether or not I should just put the stock radio back in, get some sort of iPod Aux in, remove the sub and be done with it. I just can't get over the feeling that they can just get whatever they want whenever they want out of my car because it must be incredibly easy to slim jim, or they have a roaming remote unlocker. I can't afford a super amazing alarm nor a super stealthy welded to the frame install. This sucks.

Not again!!! No jury in the world would convict you of homocide if you find out who did it!

Man, that really blows! It really makes you feel helpless and even violated.

What does a garage space cost in the city?
At some point, the cost of the garage = cost of valuable equipment.

I guess your next step is to remove everything of value from the car.
I knew someone who just left their car unlocked with a sign in the window "NO RADIO".
They never left anything in the car and it wasn't anything special to begin with.
I guess that's the price of living in SF.

/bummed for you.

A garage is at LEAST $200/month. My deductible is $250. It just doesn't make sense to pay that much for a garage... my car doesn't get broken into THAT often. I'd FEEL more secure but I couldn't afford it. I'd rather put that much towards a new apartment/house and just move.

I love my empeg and the thought of having to deal with an iPod in the car isn't appealing in the least. Ugh. Might be the best idea though.

I'm so sorry to hear that, Loren. You have the worst luck with thefts.

Bad luck.

What I'm more interested in is how they got in in the first place. Is there some trick that lets them get around the frameless windows or something to the door lock? Perhaps from the window on one side to the door lock on the other with a long pole/stick or something?

WRXes are frequently knocked off and used for ram raids over here - to the point that Subaru started fitting immobilisers to models even 3 or 4 years old just to try and stop the insurance premium going through the roof. So they must be fairly easy to get into.

loren

can you post a pic of the inside of your drivers door? I want to see the location of the power lock buttons. As I recall from my days being "parking attendent" at several NJIT parties in Newark cars with frameless windows were a joke to break into.

I figured that was the way they got in but upon inspection of the windows, I couldn't pry them back despite them being frameless. Now, with a tool of some sort I'm sure it's easy. The unlock button faces directly up on the arm rest, so if you could get a rod in there it would be a snap to unlock. But I didn't see any scratches or marring on the plastic or windows. I too would love to know how they are getting in. Then maybe I could do SOMETHING. I'm actually going to unplug the armrest lock switch... thanks for making me think of that.

I haven't tried to open any car in years, but when I did I used to use the whip antenna from my ham radio to push the unlock button.

something you may want to try is adding a relay to disable the buttons for the power lock system when the engine is off. something the auto makers could easily do but a $1 mosfet transistorXmillions of cars cuts into their bottom line.

When I managed to lock the keys in my Supra (with engine running.. don't ask) me and Rob S screwed around with a bit of coathanger for an hour or more without success. We even had a spare Supra with door panels removed to practice on!

A quick upgrade of AA service to Home Start, and the very very nice man showed up with the official AA car crime kit. Two wedges hammered in to lever the door glass outward, long pokey thing inserted into vehicle, electic window activated (since ignition was on), job done. Less than a minute. If the ignition hadn't been on I guess it would have taken at least an extra 15 seconds to hook the door release.

The new motor has deadlocks, and a damn good job too! Sadly still no answer to the brick through window approach which seems to be the chav entry method of choice around here.

Rob

the answer to the brick is speed glass, that stuff will stop a 20 pound sledge hammer.

I wonder:
If Subaru has this common problem, there MUST be an aftermarket security solution for it. If not, I should quit my job, make one, and profit.

Might Subaru even make a bolt-on security upgrade if this is so common?

I also wonder how the thieves know to target you? Regardless, they know now. So, if you strip it to stock for a few months, maybe they'll hit again, find nothing, and be gone for good. Maybe a very stealth install is needed when you put the gear back in.

Last option: sniper rifle + rooftop = no more radio thieft.

A stealth install is usualy a good choice. When I had my Jeep the amp was installed under the dash above the steering shaft. I had considered putting it under the drivers seat, but that wouldn't have lasted as I've forded it thru deep enough water to flood the floor boards.

Oh, thanks for the reminder guys. I now carry a spare key on my work key ring attached to my belt loop, it won't happen again

Note to self: investigate spell checkers for firefox.

Edit: Or, better yet, turn on the autofix option of the google toolbar already installed...

Well, I personally have always wondered what a properly installed system bought entirely at Target would sound like. I seriously considered it when my amp was stolen, but havn't had any problems since.

I've also always wondered about those two-way alarms with the pager remotes. When I was getting an alarm installed they seemed to be ebay-only and reputable places wouldn't touch them, so I assumed they were crap. Hopefully they've had time to evolve.

Matthew

I wanted to go the 2-way route initially, but I know it would lead to me jumping out of bed 10 times a month running to my car and finding nothing. Alarms get tripped so often by people bumper car parking, or by vibrations from a bus going by that it's pretty much worthless around here.

Sigh. I still can't decide what to do about it. I don't even have time to think about it for the next couple of weeks. Suck.

Alarms get tripped so often by people bumper car parking, or by vibrations from a bus going by that it's pretty much worthless around here.

The sensitivity of the alarm is adjustable. In your case, there is no reason to have a hair-trigger response. Set it so that a major impact is needed to trigger it, but also set it so any door, trunk, or hatch being opened will trigger it. They can't steal your stuff without opening a door.

My alarm is set up so that just moving a door handle sets it off, but I can shut my tailgate with impunity.

tanstaafl.

Webcam out the window using Motion to watch your car and notify you when someone walks up to it.

Street parking in san francisco probably means that loren is probably lucky to park within five blocks of his appartment. I've always wanted security cameras inside my car, I just never wanted to deal with the batteries necessary.

Matthew