As explained to me by an old Harley dealer, the problem with all alarms is the question of what happens after it goes off. Plus they go off so much everyone now ignores them. Do you confront the thieves? Most if not all are some very dangerous individuals. They may make short work of the irate owner, they've had more practice at it than most of us. Do you confront them with something to back yourself up with, i.e. "Deadly Force"? Most jurisdictions prevent the use of deadly force to defend property, do it and you are the one facing criminal charges. Lojack seems to be a good alternative, except for that "coverage" problem, chains and hardened locks are what I use for the moto, but I have never thought about chaining down an auto, but maybe it's time. Good insurance seems to be the only answer in the end. "Be careful out there...."

 

Criminals are often "so brilliant", they would drive into a brown paper bag and get lost in it....A lot of times they will come down to Key West to try and hide out for a while before heading back up to the mainland...idiots! What they don't quite clue in on is there is ONE road in and ONE road out...when you get to the end (Key West) you HAVE to turn around and go back out the SAME WAY you came in....no matter how many ways you write it, say it or draw a map to illustrate it...it will not change.

I will keep and eye out for this MINI. There are a couple of Electric Blue MINIs buzzing around here, but so far, I haven't seen one that matches that description. Mick

 

Agreed. As some have stated earlier in this thread, if someone steals my car I really don't want it back. A buddy of mine had his car stolen a few years ago and the thieves used it to drive to some place to shoot some guy! Well, the murderers were caught and he got the car back. Would you want a car back that was an accessory to murder? From then on his car gave me the creeps!!!

If your car doesn't reappear your insurance buys you, get this, A NEW CAR!!! If the car is recovered you get back what you get back. If it is damaged you've got to live with the repairs... pray that it's totalled if its recovered!

 

Sorry, this isn't true. Unless your paying for full new car replacement insurance (which some companies offer) you will get "fair market value" or blue book value in return. Which is not usually near new car price. Even if you just drove it off the lot, you'll loose at least a few thousand in the transaction.

But, yes, I agree if they take it hope they total it.

 

lolol you know instead of the club lets all cary the boot

throw those hard iron buckets on your wheel, might acually work too
it just be a pain to take off and on

 

This is so true, I had my 1993 SVT Mustang Cobra with heavy mods, close to $15,000.00 in mods taken not 50 yards from where I was spending the night. Insurance offerd $9,000.00 at first ( NO DICE) I had paperwork to back-up my claim. My thought was if you suffer a loss insurance should make you whole, didn't happen, after 6 weeks of back and forth it ended up at $17,000.00 even though I found a car with low mileage just like mine, box stock in my area, insurance told me that fair market was all they were going to do and not replacement. What was left of my car was later found. My MCS has LoJack.

 

MINIapolis,

A person I work with came in this morning and said he just saw an Electric Blue/Black MINI on one of the local used car lots. This is not to say it’s yours, but I will drive by and check it out on my way home about noon.

Is there anything special I can look for if the plates have been changed that will identify your MCS? Graphics, scratches or anything different than a stock MINI. What year is it and approximately how many miles were on it?

If you are on the site today please PM me over on www.sunshineminis.org any information that may help me help you.

MINIs are very rare in my area of Florida and Electric Blue the rarest color of all. As I said over on Sunshine, I have the only E Blue MINI in the area and I do get the word if there’s another around.

 

Her car has the chrome front grille (Not the E/B stock one), OEM driving lights, xenons, sunroof, 17" S-lites, rain sensor in the windshield, Harmon Kardon, clearbra on the bonnet, MFSW (Sport 2-spoke) black leather seats, front fogs, obc, auto a/c and alloy patina dash. I believe it is a 2004 model year.

There is a photo of the car over at SSM (Look under the "MINI Banter" forum. James posted it in there).

Here is the pic anyway:




Hope this helps!

 

I believe this saga is over, at least from what I read in the OL.

Car was recovered. Somebody jacked it with a tow truck out of the APT complex

So, for those worrying about your keys ... I still think there is NO recorded case of a MINI being stolen without a key ....

If they are going to tow it, well they are going to get it no matter what you do

 

Car was found.

Here is the post from the owner (MINIapolis):

"GREAT NEWS! My MINI was found! The Miami Police called me this morning -- it was in a towing lot. It had been towed from my apartment lot -- by someone posing as the manager.

So, now my apartment manager is investigating who made the call -- because he didn't and the towing company never got his signature as authorization. And on top of that, the police called the towing company the morning I made the report and they denied having towed anything from my address (10 hours after the fact.)

Bottom line is that it was illegally towed. They just took the caller's word for it (I think I must have a neighbor mad at me for some reason! Jeez!) They came onto private property where I pay rent and illegally took my car. My insurance adjuster said I could file felony charges against them.

So, I paid the towing company $271.00 to get my car off the lot. And there are scratches on the bumper, etc. My adjuster said I need to ask for my money back, and repairs made to my bumper, etc. or threaten to press charges against them.

Thank you all for your support. I am so relieved! And even more so that it wasn't broken into, hotwired, stripped or sent to South America.

YAY! Welcome home Abbey! (but she does need a bath.)

Dawn"

 

Glad to hear it was found, realtivly nice ending now that we all got scared about being broken into, guess you never can be too careful though.

 

and for the insurance thing...when i got bumbles i made sure i got the GAP insurance on her...that way whatever the insurance wont cover the GAP will and they will give me a 1000 bucks to put towards a replacement....peace of mind...but i had an alarm installed and i didnt know there was a valet mode cuz i came out of the misson valley mall one night not long ago and found some kids messing with it....nailed the little buggers and had them escorted to the police who went up in the mall and got the parents...luckily no damage was done but aparently these kids had a history of problems but they got their butts beat by their parents...in front of the kids friends ha ha...

 

A few comments on the thread:

Its been a week and no sign of it. I'm filing the claim tomorrow.

FYI, I'll be collecting a check for blue book retail plus sales tax. Given the depreciation our cars have avoided, for a few grand more we are going to order a 2006 on Saturday.

Lojack: Frankly, do you want your car back after its been stolen? I am not so sure I do...

Theft methods: no broken glass, police presume it was removed by a towtruck out of the driveway. They thought it looked like a repo job, but I showed them the car was free and clear.

Interesting discussion on the key theft prevention systems. If it was somehow bypassed, it seems to me whatever happened, someone wanted this specific car. This was not a joy rider.

It was pros...be careful out there.

 

i guess it all boils down to your luck...