Weedy1 Posted June 16, 2007 Posted June 16, 2007 Well I came home from fishing last night, parked my 95 Cherokee in the driveway, took most of my fly fishing gear out of the vehicle and put it in the garage. Go to bed, wake up in the morning, go to the garage, open the garage door and low and behold my Jeep isn't where I parked it last night. Actually I don't see it anywhere, gone, poof, disappearing act. Call the cops, their computers are down. Don't have a license number even. Go to registries, get license number, file police report, and wait, wait, wait. The stupid thing about it all? I knew that mid 90's Cherokees had a high vehicle theft rate in Edmonton and had a anti theft steering wheel lock. Well stupid me, no I didn't use it last night. If I had I'm sure it would have been there this morning. So the moral of the story is? Lock it and protect it. I had used my steering wheel lock everywhere except the occasional time at home. This theft was scoped out well in my opinion, so don't let the assholes out there get your stuff. The final kick in the ass is I didn't carry theft due to the vehicle only being worth about 4 grand. I probably saved the cost of the vehicle over the years though by not carrying comp. I'll find out Monday if my home insurance covers it, which I doubt. I figure this may have cost me about a grand top. Live and learn........... This is a vehicle description. 1995 Grand Cherokee Laredo White in color. Smashed in running boards. Smells like fish. Stolen from Castledowns area North Edmonton June 15-16 Very similar to this picture. Quote
dryfly Posted June 16, 2007 Posted June 16, 2007 Bummer weedy1. From your driveway no less!?!? Is nothing sacred? Maybe Al Gore had his people look you up. Maybe. Good luck with your insurance coverage. I am guessing you are hooped. Clive PS: Who says public floggings should not be brought back? Would sure stop a lot of BS crimes. Quote
Weedy1 Posted June 16, 2007 Author Posted June 16, 2007 PS: Who says public floggings should not be brought back? Would sure stop a lot of BS crimes. The scary thing about it is my wife leaves for work at 4:30am. It was stolen between 9:30pm last night and 4:30 this morning. If the guy doing the theft had been out there at the time my wife left for work it may have been a different story. One of us would have been in the pokey, or hospital. Hey the good thing about it is now I can get a vehicle that doesn't smell like Rainbow Quote
lonefisher Posted June 16, 2007 Posted June 16, 2007 crappy to hear about that........ Sounds like they had you scoped out and we waiting for a night when you didn't use the steering lock..... Had the same sorta thing happen with my mtn bike last year locked it all the time finally one day I left it unlocked in front of my truck in underground parking for like 2 hours and it was gone....... Bastards Quote
Weedy1 Posted June 17, 2007 Author Posted June 17, 2007 Clive: the public flogging almost became a reality! Well they caught the punk. He is apparently and 18 or 19 year old badass. We’ll see if he lives up to his reputation when he bent over some guys bed in the big house. The guy lived a few doors down from where the pictures were taken. The neighbors heard the crash and 6 guys ran out then surrounded the little punk preventing him from leaving the yard. I’m not sure if any vigilante justice was served but I hope so. The police phoned me and I went down to the scene. We did the formalities, the officer drove the Jeep out, and then the officer told me the guy blew .250. Hopefully some guy is making love to him in the Remand centre as we speak. I guess I'll have to take a day off just to see what this punk gets for time, and to have a good laugh. Quote
Jeffro Posted June 17, 2007 Posted June 17, 2007 Holy Schnikey's. Glad you got your vehicle back but sorry to see it is in such rough shape. hopefully shes still mechanically and structurally sound. Hope the dirt bag pays his dues in the big house and makes a fine girlfriend. Quote
chidders Posted June 17, 2007 Posted June 17, 2007 Holy Crap! Who needs cable TV when you have this Forum! Quote
Weedy1 Posted June 17, 2007 Author Posted June 17, 2007 Holy Schnikey's. Glad you got your vehicle back but sorry to see it is in such rough shape. hopefully shes still mechanically and structurally sound. Hope the dirt bag pays his dues in the big house and makes a fine girlfriend. I drove it home, no overheating, AC works, no shakes, and all of my stuff still in the vehicle. Plus one more punk in jail. Best fathers day present I'll ever receive, except maybe next to the 2 hour victum impact statement I'll give in court. I'm going to have the punk in tears begging me to stop! Then I'm going to sue the little *** and make him pay for years to come. Believe me, he *** with the wrong guy. I'm the master of pain when it comes to stuff like this. This is what I would guess he's facing: Operating a motor vehicle in a manner that is dangerous to the public - FIVE YEARS Failure to stop at scene of accident - FIVE YEARS Operation while impaired - FIVE YEARS Break and enter - TEN YEARS Theft - TEN YEARS Possession of break-in instrument- TEN YEARS Possession of property obtained by crime - TEN YEARS 55 years total. Considering he's about 18 I think he'll be out by the time he's 20 Quote
RandyS Posted June 17, 2007 Posted June 17, 2007 Weedy. That's really stinks. Too bad you didn't keep fire, theft and vandalism on it. The extra insurance cost is very little but whats done is done. These yahoos are getting braver all the time. A co-worker of mine had his van stolen out of the staff parking lot in mid day while he was inside the building working. They found it in Calgary. It wasn't the van he cared about but rather what was inside it. Luckily he recovered it all. Quote
dube Posted June 17, 2007 Posted June 17, 2007 I'm surprized he didn't get beats from the old boy whose rhubarb and potatoes he wiped out . Sorry about your luck. I hate thieves. Quote
Weedy1 Posted June 17, 2007 Author Posted June 17, 2007 The old guy that owned the property showed up about 10 minutes after I arrived. He had a big smile on his face and I knew exactly what he was thinking. "New fence." We discussed it later and I told him to ask his insurance company for a nice new cedar fence with fancy lattice. He laughed. One of the first things he said was something to the effect "Oh my god my prized rhubarb." The pics are after the neighbors helped clean up. I guess there were fence boards strewn everywhere in the yard and alley. Randy, in the 6 years I have had the vehicle I would have paid about $3500 in comprehensive and my deductible was at $1000 for comp. (My wife has a poor driving record but I pay for it.) Even with the $550 rear windshield I blew out a month ago I am still ahead of the game. Then there would have been the increase in my costs for the claim. As far as I'm concerned you never get ahead with the insurance companies when it comes to small time stuff. Who pays? You Pay! They have paid out over $200,000 for liability claims for me though. Insurance companies in my opinion are worse than organized crime. I fought it out with an insurance company once and took it so far that I had a couple of lawyers sicked on me by a rather large insurance trade organization. I was talking too much and asking people in high positions questions they had never heard before. They became worried about what I was doing. Have you ever heard of intercompany agreements between insurance companies? I'll say no more or else I may have a lawyer on my butt. Quote
Nick0Danger Posted June 17, 2007 Posted June 17, 2007 Would it not be the punk kid paying to fix that *hit? After all it was him driving without insurance, also if he had insurance could they not go after his insurance after all he was driving. I know when my cousin crashed gammies car his insurance paid not grammies. Quote
lonefisher Posted June 17, 2007 Posted June 17, 2007 Well that is in a way a happy ending to this story. Did you get a chance to tell the little prick off? I hope so. But anyways looks like it will work out OK. Your right he will likely be out by the time he is 20 if he even serves time but every once in a while they do make charges stick and put people away for a reasonable amount of time. Fingers crossed Quote
Weedy1 Posted June 17, 2007 Author Posted June 17, 2007 Would it not be the punk kid paying to fix that *hit? After all it was him driving without insurance, also if he had insurance could they not go after his insurance after all he was driving. I know when my cousin crashed gammies car his insurance paid not grammies. He blew .250, that's an aggravated drunk driving. I don't think the punk had a car or insurance other wise he probably wouldn't have stolen mine unless it was a for profit type theft. Either way time will tell. I'm going to find out the court dates, talk to the prosecutor, show up in court and get the facts on this little ***hole. Then I'll own him until he pays up. Hey, maybe his Mommy and Daddy are rich? Quote
Weedy1 Posted June 17, 2007 Author Posted June 17, 2007 Well that is in a way a happy ending to this story. Did you get a chance to tell the little prick off? I hope so. But anyways looks like it will work out OK. Your right he will likely be out by the time he is 20 if he even serves time but every once in a while they do make charges stick and put people away for a reasonable amount of time. Fingers crossed Nope didn't see the guy. I'm already working on the lecture he's getting in court from me. I wouldn't doubt he has lots of experience doing this. One screwdriver is all it took. Quote
cdock Posted June 18, 2007 Posted June 18, 2007 Oh man that blows. At least they caught him. Unfortunately he'll be out soon doing it again. Quote
jonny5 Posted June 18, 2007 Posted June 18, 2007 Wow, exciting. Well, at least your car is not too bad. Advice: don't use steering wheel locks. It takes about 2 seconds to cut pieces out of the steering wheel and take them off (bolt cutters). Get one that applies the brake pedal. At least that way, they can't tow it very easily (some people steal cars with tow trucks). Quote
Brownstone Posted June 18, 2007 Posted June 18, 2007 glad to hear you got your wheels back weedy, guy tried to steal my pick-up couple years ago in a work camp in the bush no less..he should have got it but i think he was too messed up to realize he had to push in the clutch to fire it up...not so much the damage as the feeling of violation for me..good luck.. Quote
Pipestoneflyguy Posted June 18, 2007 Posted June 18, 2007 Secret switch - I use one on my jeep cause its always open Just find the power wire to your fuel pump - wire it to a toggle switch you mount under your seat, voila, your thief will kill the batt before he ever gets it running. (great for leaving your truck unattended in remote areas) Also I have a wire scrambler plug-in chip- it is a small plastic plug in chip which scrambles the ignition wiring when removed (fits on a key chain) even an expert mechanic would take hours to hot wire it - basically towing is the only option for theives. Perfect ideas if you don't have insurance especially (get some help cause you will want a fuse in there somewhere) Quote
Pipestoneflyguy Posted June 18, 2007 Posted June 18, 2007 PS first night ever in Calgary some scuzball punks stole my car with all my climbing ( I was guiding at the time so that is over 5k worth of gear alone) and skiing gear along with pretty well everything I owned as I was moving to Lake Louise from Ontariable at the time - insurance left me basically high and dry because I didn't document my $3000 turbo, stereo , all the gear, etc etc - pretty crappy welcome to Calgary eh ! Quote
powking12 Posted June 18, 2007 Posted June 18, 2007 Ya, good luck on that kid getting anything more than a suspended sentence. That's what you get for living in Castledowns (my old stomping grounds) Quote
Weedy1 Posted June 19, 2007 Author Posted June 19, 2007 I talked to the prosecutors and police today. I can have a restitution order put on the guy, not that I think he will pay it. If he doesn't pay up it's either more time or more probation. If he has any previous convictions he is probably looking at time in a penitentiary. The police and auto body guys think this guy is a pro by the way he got in. First estimate with new parts was $4500, $3500 or so to do it with used parts. I found out from my insurance company I would have paid $4212 dollars in comp and theft over the years if I had paid for the coverage. So really I am out the money I have saved over the years and if the guy gets it together who knows I might even get paid for the damage. Unless I can get the work done cheap I'll probably sell it for the parts and get something else. Pipestone - I'm an automation tech. If I get into theft deterrents, believe me, there is going to be something a little more spectacular than disabling of the vehicle! Quote
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