Well, there's been a bit of a debate here and there in some circles, with regards to wether or not to get the very expensive (relative to some other alarms) MINI alarm.

I bring you reasons again why to, pictures, and my opinion.

4th of July, spent the day with DCMM doing Mini stuff. 5th of July, awoken early in the AM to a man at the door demanding to speak to the 'man of the house'.

I toss on some pants, and go downstairs to see a neighbor I don't recognize... When he sees me, the first thing he says is "Man, someone broke into your car."

I walk outside and find my drivers side window (held together by heavy tint) laying on the ground next to my rear wheel. I take a quick glance inside. Glove box intact, Gtech still in window next to radar detector, in the backseat my newish $2400 laptop is there alongside my $1300 DSLR and leather jacket. My in-dash LCD is still there too. Whew, nothing was taken.

I called USAA and using knowledge gained earlier in this forum, did not identify who I was before asking questions. They said the window is covered under comprehensive, and if it was less than my deductible then they "wouldn't pay a penny". How nice of them to put it that way. So I hung up. I'm really not liking them nowadays.

So I call my Mini dealer, and they refer me to an auto glass company thats not open yet, so I sit here and ponder on my car and what my neighbor said while I was looking for damage/stolen items. My neighbor had said they ripped out his LCDs from his headrests, and took his cell phone. He called his cell phone and said they answered, said they 'found' his cell phone, and told him to meet at a gas station 1 mile down the road. He went, and was ambushed by police. The police told him they thought he was one of the suspects trying to get his the stuff back, because they didn't know who the cell phone belonged to.

So did my alarm work? You're damn right it did. Somehow it didn't wake me up, but asshats get startled easily. I park facing my house, and the alta lights are wired up, so when the extremely high pitched (not so loud, but hurts because of the pitch) alarm goes off, the high beams flash, and the alta lights LIGHT UP the front of my house. I know at that point they panic'd.

Something else I realized with the alarm, is that if an alarm goes off, sometimes they still try and nab 'something' before they leave. Well, the way the Mini's seats are positioned, they couldn't get to or see anything in the back seats. I have black lights in all the cabin lighting positions so they couldn't see anything inside. The tint is dark so they couldn't see what was in the car in the first place. The doors don't unlock when the window is broken, so they must have been struggling to get in before they ran, last chance trying to nab something. THANK YOU FOR NO UNLOCK BUTTONS MINI!!! Morons don't try interior handles!

Nothing was gone. Nothing at all. And I have my alarm to thank.

I have said it every since I got it. The alarm does not protect your Mini. There are several protections in place to keep people from stealing it, so long as they don't get the keys. The main reason to get an alarm is to PROTECT WHATS INSIDE.

If you've got nice gadgets or mods, I highly recommend an alarm.

This is the third time in 4 years my vehicles have been broken in, or attemped to have been broken into. The only thing I have lost was a 4 cell maglight in my wifes truck, as they grabbed and ran... And the damage from them trying to get in. Chipped window on my camaro, crowbarred handle on my truck, and now drivers side glass on my Mini.

Better than losing all the goodies inside, no?

Pics: (huge, too much going on too work on resizing now)
http://mappage.net/mini/brkin/PICT0494.JPG
http://mappage.net/mini/brkin/PICT0495.JPG
http://mappage.net/mini/brkin/PICT0496.JPG
http://mappage.net/mini/brkin/PICT0497.JPG
http://mappage.net/mini/brkin/PICT0498.JPG
http://mappage.net/mini/brkin/PICT0499.JPG

And yes, I looked for fingerprints but found none.

Oh, and as an additional FYI, you can buy the OEM Mini Alarm much cheaper if you order through one of the mail-order dealers, it's simple to install yourself, and you can pay your dealer ($25-100+ depending on dealer) to activate it. Much cheaper than the multi-hundred dollars they try to charge you for the install, and anyone can do it.

 

DAMNIT! Although I am amazed how they got the glass out. Is it somehow cut?

 

good story... sorry you were victimized, but it surely could have been worse! hopefully the thieves get what was coming to them somewhere.

 

They just bashed it in, and the tint held it together.

 

looks like they probably punched in the front corner at the top and ripped outwards. they must have been wearing gloves.

 

 

Thats pretty gnarly. Hope you get it fixed before it rains!

I honestly will begin searching for an alarm.

 

Oh wow I'm sorry to hear that.

 

Bat-MINI has not had an easy year....

I really love my alarm - flashing red light and all... It is especially useful with the cabrio because it will (eventually) sense anyone reaching down into the open cabin should you leave it parked topless (which I sometimes do when running quickly into a store where I can keep an eye on it).

Hope she heals soon -

Bill

 

man your car looks so hot... personally the factory alarm or any alarm is merely an accessory. You are right that having an alarm wont guaranty anything but it is a deterrant.

I like the factory alarm for the audible alerts. the Alarm for the 2006 also comes with fewer components. the tilt sensor is packaged with the siren so there's on less component to install. the most difficult to install is the signal stalk on the steering column. everything else is a cinch.

 

NOOOOOOOOOO not the BATMINI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow that sucks! Get that fixed ASAP! The BATMINI is one of my favorite MINI's on here! I can't imagine how you feel right now...

-Cody

 

Sorry to hear that man. At least they did not take anything.

For a while I've not been a big fan of Alarms because whenever they do go off, it's when I accidently push the panic button on a car or it happens by some electrical malfunction. On my old Golf, I talked about disconnecting it, but never did. After seeing this and having just got my Mini a week ago, I'll leave the alarm intact.

 

BTW your MINI is bad ***.....
I f***kin hate theives man....I hope they die...I had 2 vehicles stolen from me so I have no compassion for them..
Did they key the front quarter and door too?. Looks like that in the pic.
Hope you get it fixed soon man.
Good luck

 

sucks that it happened, but good thing your alarm saved you from further loses that may not have been covered under warranty!

 

Unfortunately no. It's now pouring and I was supposed to on my way to get it fixed now, but can't because of teh rain. I have an unbrella sticking out of the drivers side, but it's still getting soaked. Yay for wet okoles I guess.



No, I think that's a spiderweb.

Actually, I said the real purpose of the oem alarm is to protect your stuff, not to protect your car.

 

Well I am glad all your stuff's still there.

Lot harder to replace than a window and tint!

Nice Umbrella

 

What a drag!!!!
Someone tried to break in to my car once.
The combo of heavy tint and an alarm sort of stopped them.
Yes they got 2 speakers out of the back, but I got some joy too.
When they punched the hole in the back glass thet got cut very badly. Cleaning up all the glass chunck covered in blood wasn't to bad.
Oh and the speakers cost me $25.00.
Jackasses...

 

Will as soon as it started to rain here I thought of your car

 

I am sorry to hear what happened to your MINI. No one deserves something like this, but especially a MINI as nice as yours. Love those rims!

Anyway, when you get things back in order, can you give more information on this please?

How were you able to get the lights wired in with the OEM alarm?

Thanks a lot and I hope you are able to get things straightened out quickly.

 

The umbrella shot is so sad.
Glad to hear the alarm saved you some $ and grief.
Voodoo curses on the friggin' thieves.:impatient

 

Damn! At least it's only the window (the optimist in me) and they didn't get the rest of your stuff. I'm glad I have an alarm, just in case. Maybe you should think about moving after having all these attempted break-ins and break-ins. Maybe a move to Japan???!!!

So how did you make out with the insurance company on this? I hope you get it fixed soon as I see it's fairly wet on the east coast these days. I like your umbrella photo, but it looks like you need a tarp with all those rains your getting.

I just moved my son to Minneapolis this past weekend. We had gone to IKEA to pick up a few things, one being a mattress that we strapped to the roof of a mini-van. We needed to make a stop at Target on the way back to the apartment, so my older son went into Target with me while the other son guarded the car. We were in the store no more than two minutes when a guy came up to the van and attempted to steal the mattress with my son sitting in it! The NERVE! My 6'3" son got out and said, "Can I help you?" The guy took off. Dumb a$$. You never know about people these days.

Sorry about your loss and good luck!

 

Oh yeah, I'd like to hear how this is wired into the alarm. Every little extra noise or light I think will make the bad guys disappear that much quicker. This probably saved your stuff when the Alta lights went on.

 

Wow, I got to say that you've had some pretty bad luck lately and feel sad for you/the wife/ and the batmini!

I guess I am one of the alarm "haters" so I will offer up the counterpoints that maybe (or maybe not) you missed.

I once had a Porsche 944 living in a townhouse complex (as I believe you do). Full alarm, best you could buy at the time. I made the mistake of putting velcro on the dash to mount the radar detector. One night someone did the EXACT same thing as happened here. Smashed the drivers window and stole the radar detector that was hidden UNDER the seat (they knew because of the velcro). Yeah, the alarm went off although I couldnt hear it either but it did nothing to stop the damage. Now hold that thought ...

Your other neighbor ... was his car broken into the same night?

Your radar detector was sitting there in plain sight. Its about impossible to miss it. So the question becomes ... did the smash the window to actually steal anything? Or did they smash it out of spite (to be mean). The fact the window is on the ground it would have been simple to reach in and grab the RD. As to the back seat, your right, they probably couldn't have figured out how to open the door in a panic. So I question their motives. Since your car has such dark tint, they have no idea what was in there to steal.

I've read in other forums of cars, expensive ones at that, with just the window smashed in for fun ... not to steal anything and knowing full well the alarm was going to go off. Here is an example http://caymanclub.net/topic.asp?TOPI...le=Cayman+Chat

As to the fingerprints, you say you saw none but can you see fingerprints? If it were smash and grab they could have tried the door or near the door handle. Even on the chrome, without a forsenic kit, I don't see how you would know. In my case, I called the cops, they came out and did the forsenic thing and got partial prints, I believe ... but you would never see them with the naked eye.

Just wondering.

Bottom line, I am not trying to take anything away from your bad experience, its very sad. Mean people suck. I am just questioning if this was not just an act of vandalism vice an attempt to steal something from within a blackouted car where they could see virtually nothing from the outside (as you indicate).

BTW, if it were vandalism vice smash and grab, some ppl do that just because of jeoulosy or whatever and odds are, it may happen again (yeah I know, not a pleasant thought, sorry but forewarned is forearmed).

 

[quote=Wagnbat]Unfortunately no.




Oh I am so sorry! I wonder if I jinxed it!

 

Sorry to hear about ur MINI. That's a sweet lookin MINI. They didn't even steal your coke. But seriously luckily it's only the window. And yes this rain sucks. I was in it when it started today as I was driving through DC from VA to MD. There was 2 to 4 inches of water in some places.