Good enough to steel!

man_in_plaid · Post by **man_in_plaid** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 1:07 am

Apparently, My 1984 4WD tercel was a juicy target for an attempted theft the other night. The alleged thief broke my door lock, than tried to start the car with a screw driver, failing in that department (and grinding the aluminum ignition down to nothing) he than tried to hot wire it, in which I'm assuming he succeeded before he realized that his previous attempt had locked the steering wheel. He than rifled through the car and stole the only thing not sellable (a cd book as opposed to the cds with cases, cd player with faceplate one, pair of oakleys, halloween sombraro) I don't know if my car was a "practice car" considering that i live 100 feet from a place where BMW's are parked frequently, or if the thief/thieves thought that an older car and 4WD to boot would be a fun joy ride in the central Alberta winter. Had anyone else been victemised this way? And should i try to fix the ignition myself with a trip to the auto wreckers? or get an actual mechanic to fix it?

Mac · Post by **Mac** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 1:52 am

BMW's are some of the hardest vehicles to break into/hotwire/steal.

the tercel probably looked like an easy target, and it probably would be if the guy was half decent at stealing cars.

dcn · Post by **dcn** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 7:13 am

My Terc was stolen about 5 years ago, I had only had it a few months. I always park it on the end of a row of spots in parking lots if I can to avoid door dents, and there was a purple Dodge Caravan sitting where my car was when I looked out the window of the grocery store.

Dad picked me up, and we drove around town a bit looking for it, fearing the worst, but we eventually found it on the other side of the parking lot. The police said maybe they couldn't drive a manual or something and gave up. We had just spent about 4 hours under it that afternoon spraying it with rustproofer, so there was no point fingerprinting they said. No damage, nothing stolen, but they did leave it unlocked. If It wasn't uphill from where I parked it I would have sworn it rolled.

Some effing punks keyed it with one line on the driver's side about a week after I got it too, I'm still waxing parts of that out.

And I walked out of Wal-Mart one time to see someone had let a cart go into the side of it WHILE it was parked on the end of a row. It was on the original fender though, which has been replaced.

So I have one of the few Tercel Wagons with an alarm now, and I pro-actively hate everyone on the road.

Iain · Post by **Iain** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:43 am

dcn wrote:So I have one of the few Tercel Wagons with an alarm now, and I pro-actively hate everyone on the road.

I put an alarm in my T4WD the day after it got worked over in my parking garage. Just from some peace of mind, really. I also plan on installing power door locks soon too. Mmmmm, keyless entry!!

MootsMan · Post by **MootsMan** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 11:23 am

My Tercel was broken into a couple of months back. I had made the mistake of leaving a nice Tag Heuer watch laying on the console, and my wallet was in the compartment under the stereo. That's all they took, though....my road bike, Glock 9mm, and iPod were all in the car as well.

The got in by breaking the fixed window in the rear passenger door. Needless to say I was pissed off, so I'm trying to be more careful about leaving stuff in full view now.

Mac · Post by **Mac** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 3:30 am

wow, i wouldn't even leave my swatch in my car!

and my wallet, its always in the safest place it can be, on my person.