The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it!
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
Has anyone ever broken into your vehicle? If so, what did they steal and how much damage did they cause?
Talk about it….
Once…they broke a window and stole stupid stuff. Then a couple days later we remembered we had concert tickets in the glove box. We were able to cancel the tickets and get replacements. They were pricey tickets. We just hoped they would try to go with reported stolen tickets. We will never know.
Worked and had a shop in San Francisco for thirty years and never had my car broken into. When we moved to Walnut Creek many years ago there was a juvenile delinquent down the block who slashed three of my tires during the night. Wasn’t hard to tell why he was like that. The kid got arrested and tried but the father refused to pay for my tires. Shortly after they moved out of the neighborhood. Probably evicted. Another neighbor boy walking his dog at night saw him do the deed.
Yup. They also broke into our house while we were asleep. Woke up to the dogs barking liking crazy and them driving off in their getaway car. This was about 10 years ago.
Thankfully no damage to the vehicle and I didn’t have anything of value for them to steal in the car but they did get some valuable items from our house. None of them were ever caught.
I moved to Concord in 1973. I had a CB unit in my vehicle and an alarm system. Unfortunately I did not activate the vehicle alarm and this vehicle had vent windows. I parked at the PHill BART station and went to work. Upon my return to the BART Station I saw my vent window open! The glove box was rifled and a SSB-CB unit was stolen. BART police was of no help.
I’ve never had my car broken into, but I have had it stolen before. It was found in Oakland a week later smelling of weed and with the stereo missing. The worst part was Oakland PD had actually found it three days earlier and sent it to an impound lot but didn’t tell me about until an entire week went by. And, of course, I was responsible for paying for the days it was in impound, but didn’t know about it. Gotta love Oakland.
Had a similar experience in 1991; vehicle stolen and abandoned in Oakland minus the battery and steering column smashed out. OPD sent it to an impound lot for a week before notifying us. Thank goodness for insurance. Gotta HATE Oakland and CA!
Someone stole my eight track from my 62 Chevy Impala. Not much damage, just a couple of cut wires. I went and bought another one and installed it. In those days, they were installed under the dash, so it was easy to steal, and easy to replace. I was just thankful that my tapes weren’t stolen. Another time, someone attempted to steal a cassette deck from a Camaro that I had. That one was an in dash installation, and they couldn’t get it out, so I’m guessing they gave up. No damage, just the knobs were removed and were laying on the floor. On the 62 Chevy, the doors were locked, but they pried open the wing window, and on the Camaro, it was parked in my driveway with the doors unlocked. Ever since, I always lock the doors. I’ve also had kids steal the chrome valve caps from my tires, they use them on their bikes.
Yeah back in the day we called those Chromies. ha ha ha.
Twice during the 1970s Stole my sliderule out of my Sprite (sliding windows and no door locks) and the ashtray out of my TR4, had the top down.
Just wanted to add that both of these incidents were at DVC
In November 2014, we were in Oakland Chinatown in a restaurant on 8th street celebrating one of my kids’ birthdays and noticed there was some trouble brewing from the TV – it was the beginning of the Ferguson “protests” where they started destroying businesses and burning vehicles. We didn’t realize we were a block away from what was happening on TV (there was really no sign of it from inside of the restaurant) and enjoyed the rest of the meal and then walked out into chaos and a very dangerous situation with our bunch of kids. Our vehicle was fortunately parked directly across the street so we safely got to the vehicle and got out of there asap. The chaos was fairly contained to the next block over but a little too close for comfort. There was damage to our vehicle – one of the windows was broken and my daughter’s backpack was stolen. It had an expensive voice recorder and a music composition that she had been working on all semester for a class she was in. I filed with the police but it was never recovered. No surprise there. The window was also difficult to replace since it was a 13-year-old 15-passenger van but I eventually found an adequate replacement. We were just glad nobody got hurt and we got out of there safely. My daughter re-wrote her composition and was happier with the second version than she was with the first 🙂
Yes, unfortunately my car and my husband’s car. Mine was broken into at my work and my husband’s was broken into in the parking lot of our apartment complex. They stole a bag of clothes I was going to donate and two cd’s. My husband had a bag of trash and some coins from the ashtray stolen. Hopefully those clothes still went to good use and I hope they enjoyed the Depeche Mode cd’s
Yes, several times, 2x in SF, 1x at the Coliseum, and 2x in WC … All Smash & Grab except 1, they used a Slim Jim. Nothing of Value
All of you telling your mythical stories, for shame. According to Cortez, all this crime is a myth. I am withholding my less than complementary opinion of her, out of kindness for the weak.
I have had somebody enter my inadvertently unlocked car overnight. They stole a few CDs, and a lot of papers of zero value. We found one of the binders holding these papers a few blocks over the next day. I do try to keep everything hidden (not that it changes much now).
AOC has been living in La-La Land all her life, she wouldn’t know reality if it came up and bit her on the butt.
AOC was born in the Bronx. But for college she lived around NYC her whole life. She knows about crime.
@Doh, Have you heard AOC talk lately? The increase in violent crime in NYC is at an all-time high, yet AOC denies the crime surge, and the existence of smash and grab robberies. Like I said, she is living in La-La Land, and wouldn’t know reality if it came up and bit her on the butt.
Once had the hubcaps stolen off of my Studebaker whilst at Concord Feed. This was the summer of 59, damn liberals from Berkeley Im sure. Thank Newscum, Desalner and Obama. Let Go Mildred!!
My car was stolen from the surface lot at Concord BART back in 2012 (the one in front of the attendant) on a Saturday while I was at work in SF. Found a couple weeks later when the guy who took it wrecked it, called a tow truck, and was arrested. Car was totaled, I was supposed to be notified about a new court date when the hearing got rescheduled for unspecified reasons, never heard anything about it ever again.
Twice this past year, in front of my house in Concord. Both times contents were removed from the console and left on the front seat…nothing of value and nothing taken. However, they smashed the driver side window. Probably looking for a garage clicker that was not there. That would be a bad move since the garage has an alarm sensor and let’s just say I’m pro 2A.
Yes. At least three times but there wasn’t anything value inside my 97 Nissan pickup. It cost me to replace the window, lock on the driver side door, and parking maker lights.🤬
Can you top this?
Many years ago, my ’74 Ford Courier was stolen from an outside parking area at a Concord tire/brake shop. A few weeks later, I got a call from the SF PD, saying my truck had been recovered, and where I could pick it up. Truck now had a basic/cheap camper shell, a bunch of useful tools, a portable radio, a big bunch of keys, and new(stolen) license plates, none of which it had when stolen. Sure miss that little truck; no smog stuff, ran great.
…oh yes – several times… had my car stolen too – PH BART parking garage by a tow truck driver… LE chased him in Oakland on surface streets at 100mph – LE discontinued chase,,, then found the car at drag strip in Sacramento with drag time slips in the back seat…. LE knew who it was – did they ever do anything? noooooooo
Someone pried open a wing window on my 1968 Mustang. They reached in and rolled the window down. Got some cassette tapes out of the glovebox and left them on the console. Something must have interrupted the thief. The next day I took off the handle that winds the window down and duct taped a rat trap to the panel. Set the trap. They never came back for the tapes. Maybe they just didn’t like Led Zeppelin.
I did when I lived in San Bruno.
I had a custom stereo installed, they took it all.
I wish I had some sort of nonlethal liquid I could spray on my car for the night that would make anyone very ill who toughed it.
I could just spray it off in the morning.
After I call the police on the scum bag laying in his own vomit in the gutter.
Idiots. One time they broke in and I guess pushed it down the street to try and hot wire it, were not successful, just tore my steering column apart.
Another time broke two of my windows, destroyed my stereo without getting it out, and didn’t even have the decency to take my expensive sunglasses, an ashtray full of money, or any of the other stuff worth stealing.
Seven or eight times, I lost track. All the same car. Hupcaps were stolen. Nosebra was stolen. Broken into at Fisherman’s Whatf and Blaupunkt Radio/Stereo/Tape Deck stolen. Guy was caught before he left the lot, but I had to appear at his arraignment before I could get my radio back. Installed alarm system. With the alarm set, broken into four more times and Radio/Stereo/Tape Deck stolen in a “patrolled lot” in Berkeley. The last time they did $3,000 damage to the padded dash prying out the radio. One time it was broken into, I hadn’t fixed it yet from the previous break in and there were just wires sticking out of where the radio was supposed to be, but they broke in anyway. There’s more, but I’d rather not talk about it.
When I lived in an apartment for a year, had my gas stolen and they took the gas cap, too.
Then I bought a home with a garage and used it to park the car. Haven’t had a break in since the gas stealing.
Fortunately, haven’t had a break in using parking lots while shopping.
Relevant story, apparently thieves are now using Apple Air tags to target high end cars…Brand name ‘air tags’ are placed in out-of-sight areas of the target vehicles when they are parked in public places like malls or parking lots.
Thieves then track the targeted vehicles to the victim’s residence, where they are stolen from the driveway.
I guess there is an app on the iPhone that indicates a tag is near you, but I have not looked into it yet. I do not have a high end car, nor the cars that have been hit for catalytic converter theft.
Yes.
One time 15 years ago, saw em out the window at 3am and let the dobermans out on them and didn’t call em off for a minute. There was absolutely nothing to steal in the car they weren’t going to steal it they had just rifled through the glove box, console and opened up the trunk to look around, didn’t really make a mess except for all the blood on the driveway. One dog got the trunk person and other one trapped guy inside car and went to town in them both.
3 times. First time in San Francisco, I think it was North Beach, could have been the Marina, but I think it was North Beach. The window was smashed and my raincoat from the backseat was missing, nothing else, it was mid to late eighties, at that time my car was a BMW 528e, so expensive to replace the window. 2nd time was when I lived in Benicia, I parked my Honda Civic on the street to go walking in Benicia State Park, it was Veterans day 2005 or 6, I sold insurance at the time, and my briefcase was very heavy so I left it on the back seat. I imagine that whoever stole it got very disappointed when all the found was insurance papers, some notes, a calculator and business card. No personal info other than my phone number. The 3rd time was 3 years ago, when I still worked at Macy’s Stanford Shopping Center it was this time of the year, and I had shoved a small tote back under the seat didn’t think anyone would notice, unfortunately someone did, that did the most damage, lost not only the bag, a nice coach wristlet, some over the counter glasses I really liked, some cash (less than $100.00) and some make up, did have some credit cards, but any charges were reversed, worst thing was I had to drive home from Palo Alto in December 10 p.m. with my front driver’s seat window missing. Fortunately I keep a sleeping bag and a fairly heavy jacket in my trunk, so I wrapped the sleeping bag arond my legs and put on the jacket so I didn’t freeze too much. I was driving the same car I have now a Toyota Camry, and my AAA covered some of the damage, but would not come out and replace the window that night, thus had to drive home in the cold.