Got this in an email. Something the MINI's disabler won't prevent. And it could easily happen to a MINI.

 

I'll have a little present in my waistband waiting for them.

 

I have heard of this before. It has happened a handful of times here in Kansas.

If I do say my self, its very clever.

 

Urban legend anyone?
http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/carjack.asp

 

Remember the "bulge" goes in the front !

 

That's what the rear wipers are for!

 

I'll have a little present in my waistband waiting for them.

SOOOO..DOOOO..I...!!!....FRIENDS OF MINE SENT THIS INFO
TO ME VIA EMAIL SOME TIME AGO....I'M ALWAYS ON THE 'UP
& UP'...LOOKING AROUND...ALWAYS BE...A..W..A..R..E...OF
YOUR SURROUNDINGS...IN THIS DAY AND TIME OF MULTI-
TASKING WE TEND TO FORGET THE SIMPLEST THINGS...LIKE
KEEP YOUR "EYES" OPEN AT ALL TIMES...!!!

 

Yeah me too...wonder what it would do to a runflat!

WELCOME TO NEVADA!

 

i read that like years ago.

in LA, you just drive out of a parking lot with your window open in a
nice car and you get jacked.

 

Snopes is a wonderful thing.

...Les

 

Sure got a bunch of people here on NAM spun up....

 

Bingo, that's the point of this, as long as you are aware of what's going on you'll reduce the risk of having bad things happen.

BTW: since when is lack of awareness urban legend?

 

What if you don't lock your doors after you get in and they rush up open your door and pull you out with the engine running and take your car?

What if they set a diversion like an old lady that falls over just in front of you and you stop to render aid and they jump in your car with the engine running and they take off (while the old lady fakes her recovery).

What if they block your way backing up once the engine comes on and then jump out and open your doors and pull you out.

---------
So, lock your doors once you start your engine and if you get out of your car turn off the engine and take your keys.

 

Urban legend viral email that has gone around the internet since 2004. Check out the link above that was posted by user http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/carjack.asp
that gives good reasons as to why this won't happen to people.

One is, you normally approach your car from the rear if parked into a spot as apposed to backed in. Most cases as you get to your car, you will tear off the paper from your window and throw it on the ground (that's what I do) before even entering your vehicle. <grin>

 

Seriously. How many of us MINI owners would not notice a piece of paper on our car before we got in? Tell people to stop buying boring cars and maybe they'll check it out like we do everytime we go to get in.

 

i'd leave the paper on it and go

 

Yeah, this bugs me. I really cannot stress enough that it pays to do a quick search on snopes before forwarding emails to everyone in your addressbook or posting to a forum. The people behind snopes put in a lot of time and they report their sources. If it seems like they have a political bias, it's only because most of the garbage email circulating the net has a particular bias and snopes demonstrates that it's usually false. I have one 'friend' who still forwards political emails to me despite all my objections. One time, I even replied to him with a snopes link and "Please stop sending me lies". Some people just don't get it.

Check snopes.com before you forward. If you "don't have the time" to do a simple search than you shouldn't be taking the time to forward those emails to your whole addressbook!

To "motor on": don't take this personally, please. Just take a "crap stops here" attitude any time you get these kinds of email in the future and it's all good.

 

If this is such a tradgedy I don't care if the thread gets locked down. In fact all it seems to be is complaints.


I've seen many people suffer because they were complaicent, this story is A plausible and B likely sent to someone with a less than clean criminal record if it is such a popular urban legend. Quite a few cars have been stolen from extremely affluent neighborhoods in the Chicago area simply because the owner felt they were so safe they didn't need to take the time to lock their new Carrera which was mysteriously missing the next morning, half of the accidents I've witnessed are due to people being unaware of what's going on around them, just because someone hasn't found previous cases doesn't mean it won't happen.

If the story wasn't plausible (and trust me I've had a good deal of garbage sent my way) I wouldn't have posted it, but I've also seen folks hop out of a running car to get something tucked under their wiper blade. But if the rest of the world prefers the it can't happen to me attitdue then its your loss.

dmoc, I read snopes as soon as the link to it was posted, to me still doesn't mean it won't happen, especially since criminals have acess to all of the same information

I'm not taking the complaints personally, I just didn't want to see anyone in the MINI community have to go through someone trying to robbed or burglarized because they didn't take 2 seconds to look around them, thats all I was trying to accomploish; my apologies for the uproar and concern.

 

thanks for the read. ill pass this on to my wife as well.