After returning home from a Home Depot in Queens, I noticed my driver's side white mirror cap was stolen. The worst part? There was another red/white mini in the parking lot. My wife thought it was ours... I bet it was them who stole our's!!

I thought Mini owners were supposed to look out for each other.

Has upgraded their original ones and have an extra lying around?

Uggh.

 

Sorry, to hear about that. Most MINI owners do look after each other, but there are a few out there that don't.

I have a set that I pulled off the day I brought Chubby home. Are your mirrors powerfold? If you can't find any near NY send me a PM.

 

Thats really unfortunate. Good luck finding one!

 

If you don't mind doing some painting, I found this post a while back,
OutMotoring also has them here, with or without paint, but they only sell in pairs. I would guess the other sellers have them too, but I don't know what other ones there are (haven't looked much).

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll post a pic of what it looks like. My wife thought it looked like darth vader when his mask was revealed.

 

I thought your car was Stolen....

 

That's unfortunate, but here's an idea, since you have the stripe off to one side, why not replace that cap with a red one? might look neat!

 

getting those off isn't a walk in the park.

 

I was in the store for less than 45 minutes. What kind of freak steals these things?!! If i'd caught them i would have thrown the Benjamin Moore paint on their car (also a red r56 MC).

I'm totally bummed. It costs so much to replace a plastic shell.

 

sorry to hear that bad karma for the heathen who stole it.

I can't believe some people are so bold...esp in a car that is so easily recognizable...you never know you might just run into them in the area at some point...

check in with your dealer too....I believe one person on here also had one stolen and their dealer was surprisingly generous about replacing it for them.

 

That sucks!!

How much are they to replace? Will your insurance cover it (I'm sure there's a deductible though, right)?

 

My deductible is $500... not worth it for a $150 replacement. It's just ridiculous that a part could be that easy to steal.

Now my car looks like garbage and I'm afraid to park it tonight because of the 'broken window" theory (when a building has one broken window, it'll soon have many more).

 

Surfblue says...That's an extremely large "leap" you're making in jumping to the conclusion that another Mini owner stole your cover, simply because one the same as yours was in the lot. You say you NOTICED it was missing when you arrived at home. How could you NOT notice that at the Home Depot when you walked right up to the car? Maybe it FELL OFF on the ride home or even on the ride to the HD??
In closing, you have exactly ZERO grounds for laying this situation on a fellow Mini owner. And you'd have thrown a bucket of paint on the car IF you'd found the owner at your car? I assure you, law enforcement would arrest YOU for a much larger crime had you done that.
With those neat offset stripes you sport, why don't you do the replacement cover in the RED, leave the other WHITE. That would make an interesting statement. Sometimes things happen for a reason.

 

+1

 

 

Ok, ok. You're all raising some fair points:

First point: It's possible that the cap could have fallen off to/from Home Depot. I am 100% sure it was there before I left for it. (It's also possible that the cap could be on spring break in Cancun... but I digress.)

It does seem a little too coincidental that another R56 was one isle over in the lot (I do take note of these things, being MINI owner) -- also with a white roof (and presumably with white caps... although there is no evidence to corroborate this). It was at night, and the lot was fairly empty.

t's more likely -- statistically speaking -- that someone stole this than it is that it would simply pop off. I realize I do not have actual statistics to base the above assumption on, but please direct me to the "Things that pop off on brand new R56" thread. If it exists, it's not a very popular one.

It's also reasonable to at least consider the possibility that the only person who would steal this would be the R56 25 feet away... right?

If the cap didn't pop off, who else would steal it? The Montero owner to my left? The contractor with the El Camino to my right?

Second point: Would I really have defaced someone's car with paint? No. especially not the someone who might be brazen enough to have walked-up to my car and pry the cap off.

I was simply venting. Mama didn't raise no fool-child. I know that 2 wrongs don't make no right.

Even if another MINI owner stole my mirror cap, I have nothing but love for the NAM community. The rogue MINI owner knows who he is and will get get his.

Last point: The red left cap / white right cap is an absolutely brilliant idea. Thank you.

 

Are you sure you brought the right Mini home?

I was once in a crowded subway, some dude kept bumping into me. When I got up to the street my wallet was gone. I knew this guy had taken my wallet I was so pissed. On my way home I kept looking for him...knowing for sure I would never see him again. What a frig'in wasted day. I got nothing done. All I could think about was how stupid I was and how I would like to ring that guys neck.

Three things I learned from that. Getting mad doesn't make me feel better, or even get my wallet back. Being paranoid of others is smart, but can consume you.

BTW when I got home I found my wallet in the "key" bowl.

Third thing I learned was to make sure I traced my steps and try not to jump to conclusions. I have serious trouble with the jump to conclusion part of the lesson though.

Advice? Take the other side off until your get a replacement...might help with "broken window" theory.

Retrace your drive. It probably fell off. For fun I would see if Home Depot has a parking lot security camera.

 

My suggestion is to go to your local hardware store instead of HD. You'll get better service and better products. HD is putting the hurt on local communities and small businesses.

 

actually, it is. Takes about 10 seconds per cap.

 

I'm glad I thought of it

Cool, someone else agrees

I'm glad you like the idea, I think it will look awesome

 

+1 on red cap

+1 on 'just because there was a MINI there doesn't mean he took it.' - Unless you noticed that it DIDN'T have a driver's side cap when you walked in, but DID when you walked out, it doesn't even make sense. If he was a cap stealer, why not take both?

Good luck on the replacement.

 

the title to this thread is very misleading. i thought a car got jacked.
just buy a new cap.

 

I have nothing to back this up, but my intuition is that it is far more likely to pop off than somebody stealing it -- and more likely to happen on a brand new car than an older one. In fact, with a brand new car if you went back to the dealer and told them it popped off while driving, my guess is that they'd replace it under warranty.

It would have been a very interesting scenario if you did catch up with that guy .

 

Not very likely that they stole your cap and didn't move their car from next to yours. *If they had stolen it, wouldn't they have just left?

Good luck though - I hope you find it when you retrace your route.

 

Nah...I've done it in under 30 seconds before. You just have to have done it before. Pop the mirror off, press in the clips and it slides right off.