Stolen Car

[sea-aye-vee.livejournal.com]

My downstairs neighbor's Honda was stolen last night and stripped for parts. It happened on Cameron Ave. and Holland street sometime between midnight and 6am. 

Bleh.

Comments

[davelew.livejournal.com]

That stinks. I had the wheels stolen off of my Honda two years ago, from just a few blocks away at Cameron and Malvern. Although my event probably had nothing to do with your neighbor's loss, it reminded me of something:

When my wheels were stolen, the repair shop said it was the tenth car they'd seen that month with missing wheels, and it seemed like an epidemic. The Somerville Police Department said it was the first report of stolen wheels they'd seen in a long time. Folks, if you're the victim of a crime, PLEASE report it to the police so that they can generate useful statistics. If the police don't know about a crime wave, they can't do anything to stop it.

thats my car & somerville police

[some1indavis.livejournal.com]

This happened to me this morning and I am quite annoyed. I was getting over it, until I found these postings:

http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/pts/576900859.html
http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/pts/576901655.html
http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/pts/576904151.html
http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/pts/576903244.html

These look really fishy. The timestamp is right, the make and model is right (the year is off - mine was a '99 but I'm guessing they would work). The post doesn't give a location (only ma) or contact info except the randomized email. $50 seems really cheap but I'm not a car parts dealer, maybe someone who reads this is, so do tell me what you think. Here's an example of one in case these get delisted:
=======
1992-1995 honda civic radiator with cooling fan attached - $50
Reply to: sale-576900859@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-02-17, 10:17AM EST
1992-1995 honda civic radiator with cooling fan attached, came out of a 1994 civic ex coupe, $50
Location: ma
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID: 576900859
=======
So I called the somerville police. They said that they don't follow up with craigslist postings and that I would have to verify that its from my car somehow, but I doubt the VIN is on any of these parts and also I don't want to deal with potential crooks either if it is them. I just wish that the somerville police did follow up and found it frustrating that they didn't want to hear me out. And yes, I know there are other crimes that are happening and a car theft is not top priority, etc etc, but you'd be pissed too if someone stole your car and is potentially selling car parts on craigslist of all places...

Any suggestions & comments are welcome.

Re: thats my car & somerville police

[davelew.livejournal.com]

Honda completely re-designs most cars on a four year schedule, give or take a year or two. Within that schedule, each new model year will have slight cosmetic changes, but the "guts" will stay mostly the same. Although this schedule might seem slow given all the marketing hype about new model years, Honda is known for re-tooling more frequently than most other car makers.

Your stolen car sounds like it came from the sixth generation of civics (1996-2000 model years). I would be very surprised if anyone was selling parts from a 6th generation civic and labelling them as 5th generation parts from 1992-1995. I don't know any specifics about these particular parts, but I think it's extremely unlikely that any 6G parts would be drop-in replacements for parts in a 5G car.

Re: thats my car & somerville police

[ryanwanger.livejournal.com]

You should try to buy one of the parts. Any part of the car that might somehow give you a clue (obviously an enormous longshot, although I would know the bumper markings on my car)? Then have the cops waiting in the bushes and bust them.

The cops respond to Craigslist postings? Is that their specific policy? Would they respond to a classified ad in the paper?

Re: thats my car & somerville police

[ryanwanger.livejournal.com]

I meant: "The cops DON'T respond to Craigslist postings?"

Re: thats my car & somerville police

[tooffdk.livejournal.com]

As was stated above, it's unlikely these are from the OP's car, since they fit Civics of a completely different generation.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

just curious...if the car was stolen, how do you know it was stripped for parts, and not just used for a joy ride and dumped somewhere? Did they find pieces somewhere?

[some1indavis.livejournal.com]

It was recovered the following morning in Lynn. We went out today to check it out and to sign some paperwork so that the insurance company can do what they need to do. We took a lot of pics, some of which I can post if people are interested.

They took a lot of panels (hood, bumper, front side, and both doors in their entirety). And, they also took the dashboard, which I was pretty surprised to see gone. So there's probably going to be some old Honda that is going to be retrofitted with my dashboard and they will be able to sell it for a big profit.

I should mention, the cops did tell me that if you have a pre-2001 honda civic, it is relatively easy to break the lock and mechanically start the car. The newer hondas and probably other cars too have chipped keys. If you have a nice looking older honda, then do consider getting a club or car alarm.