Hogan

So, I'm going to rant for a minute... if you choose to ignore it, that's fine with me, but I need to yell about it somewhere, and for some reason the internet seems like a logical place.

A little background first, as some of you may know, I'm 18 years old, and I saved up for quite some time, and bought myself an '89 911, I have loved these cars all my life, my dad had a 930, and he used to race Porsches, so when I finally got mine, I take very very good care of it, in all likelihood, I treat this car better than I treat myself. On to my story...

Ok, so it's New Years Eve, time for a night of fun and drunken debauchery right? Well apparently not, see where I'm from, most people have too much money, more money than they know what to do with, so they buy copious amounts of alcohol, drink it all, then drive their $100k+ cars home rather quickly. Hence the reason cops are literally crawling the streets, sobriety checks everywhere, every other car I saw tonight was a cop. I felt decently safe.

So I picked up my girlfriend and we head downtown to meet up with some friends and watch the ball drop. I park my car in a parking garage that doubles as the police overflow lot, extra squad cars are parked their, officers daily drivers are parked there, and there are usually a few cops in there themselves. So I thought it would be a fantastic spot to park my freshly washed '89 Porsche 911. I went out with my friends not worrying about how my car was doing, it was in one of the safest spots in one of the safest towns in Maryland.

I come back to the car at about 3 AM, someone ****ing tried to break into my car. the trim around the passenger side door was torn out, strewn everywhere, luckily they didn't get in, then they would have had free roam on my Passport 8500 radar detector, my stereo, my Ipod, my Sirius Radio, a whole bunch of cool little trinkets. They didn't break a window, they didn't key the car, I have a feeling the alarm went off and they ran.

What I'm getting at here is this... Why are people like this put on this earth, what is the purpose of scumbags like this? What do they do to benefit society? I mean, breaking into somebodies car, ruining their New Years for no good reason, a few accessories, a few material goods, what do they gain out of all this?

I'm not quite sure what to think really... I'm glad they didn't actually get in, but if they had, what would they have gotten out of it nobody NEEDS a radar detector to stay alive, nobody NEEDS an Ipod, it just seems ridiculous, what makes someone go up to somebody else's property and say, "hey, I want that, I'm just gonna go ahead and take it."

Alright, that's the end of my rant, I apologize for wasting everyones time, I'm just a bit upset... to say the least... at the moment. I'll probably post some pictures tomorrow, but for future reference, here's the car itself.

Amber Gramps

Dude, is that your mom? She's hot.














I'm kidding, That really sucks. It doesn't suck as bad as getting busted for drinking and driving, or craching your car. I bet you're glad you still have your stuff. anyway, Happy new year.

GothingNC

Sorry to hear about what happened

Just as bad a NYC.
My friend had her Nissan broken into a few years ago parked on a side street in Manhattan, broad daylight.

Someone pucnhed out the door locks, trunk locks, busted a window and stole a denim jacket with a few CD's. All within 15 minutes while parked in front of a restaurant.

My wife had her 72 Super Beetle flipped on it's side while pakred in our driveway by a few vandals 3 days after after a 12 month restoration and a $3,000 paint job. Crushed the side of the roof, fenders, door and we only had liability insurance at the time

2 months later we moved out of NY.

Daniel Dudley

A friend in NYC lost all his kid's presents, and a laptop.

Why do people steal ? Be glad you don't do drugs.

Don't leave valuables in the car, esp.in plain sight. In fact, take the train, and leave the car at home.

Can you post a picture for us ? Hopefully it won't be too bad to get this fixed, but you need to get into action around this, because being proactive is going to make you feel powerful, and less like a victim.

I honestly hope that this is the worst thing that happens to you in 08. You have a nice car, and it is well worth the effort to keep it up.

Trog

Living in the crime capital of North America, I feel I am well qualified to answer your question. The reason people commit petty (and not so petty) crimes is drugs! They need fast cash for their next 'hit'. Over here in Vancouver, if you leave 25cents in your car, you can expect to return to a smashed window. The cops in this town have taken to issuing signs for motorists to place in their car window:
"There's nothing to steal in this car, please don’t steal this sign".

Like that will make a difference.

LaughaC

That sux, but don't waste time being cynical. If we paid our cops, firefighters, and teachers a decent wage they might stop stealing, setting fires, and sleeping with students. (just kidding... bad apples get into every business)

Unfortunately too much of our taxes end up in the pockets of bureaucrats and paying for their modern concubines. The DMV in most states is a good example of how much the local government cares about the needs of individuals.

Thankfully, we have the best country on earth where we can afford to make choices, like whether or not it is worth chasing down the petty employee who stole my wife's jewelry from our Town Suites hotel room in Boca Raton this past weekend. Like most criminals, she will probably destroy herself without us having to soil our lives with her any further.

As the hotel manager said, we never should have trusted her in the 1st place. He said no crime had been committed and th loss was our fault for not depositing our valuables in their office safe each evening.

Everyone here is very fortunate not to have to spend much time in life worrying about the petty crap desperate people do. Volunteer a few hours working in a soup kitchen and you'll wish their problems could be solved with money alone.

Be thankful.

drwhosc

I feel for you. I had a similar thing happen at a hospital. The wonderful folks who broke into my car did so with percision. Luckly no real damage to the car other then a window, but they did get a bag of clothes. I oftenwonder is it worht having nice things, it just attracts others who will take it.

Interesting fact.. I saw a program about the meth epidemic on PBS. In portland where they have the most experience with meth, 90% of property crimes are for the next hit. Meth is just starting to come to the east coast, so look out for the crime spree. Just think it will become a way of life for many.

I don't take my porsche out for anything other then touring. I am very reluctant to leave it anywhere.

kplackmeyer

+1 on not leaving anything in your car. I live in Baltimore City and currently street park my 75. If there is NOTHING in view, your chances of getting popped go way down...and that includes the power cord for the electronics you have in the car. Don't think about tinting all of the windows to hide stuff either...just makes em think you have stuff in there to hide.

And yes...no one wants the stuff in your car for themselves. They want to pawn it and buy drugs. It's sad, but a fact.

Nice car tho. What part of MD are you in?

wwest

The secret, the entire secret, is to have NOTHING worth stealing in the car, and leave it unlocked and with the windows down or the Targa top removed.

But that probably only works outside of NYC.

old man neri

Actually, I know people who park downtown at night and purposely leave the doors unlocked. That way they don't smash your window to steal the 25 cents in change and half empty bottle of sunscreen.

Hogan

Douglas, I wasn't drinking, so getting caught for drinking and driving wasn't a concern for me.
But, I am quite glad they didn't actually get in. Being the next morning, I have had some time to calm down, and I'm feeling a bit better, they didn't steal anything, they didn't break a window, the damage was very minimal, just some window trim, like the seal on the window, inside the door, something like that, it's gonna be a huge pain to replace, but I'm sure it's there to prevent leaks.
Those are some good ideas though, I never thought that leaving the car unlocked would end better than locking it, but it definitely has some logic to it.
Also, the more I think about it, the more I do think it was some junkie, whose life is already pretty much ruined. Either way, I need to be more careful with my stuff, I thought I put everything away fine, but when I looked inside my car from the passenger window, I could see the radar detector and my Ipod. I just need to be more careful.

Thanks for cheering me up guys.

Oh, and kplackmeyer, I live in Bethesda, it's right outside of DC, and thats a very nice looking 911S you have.

GothingNC

My co-worker left his doors unlocked and they still smashed the window and left a note "Leave a stereo next time" along with slashed seats in his Saturn while he had it parked at hotel parking lot in MD

And yes, the Meth has been a problem here for a while

John

73-911E-Targa

I'm an assistant public defender in North Carolina. I agree that drugs are a huge part of the problem (still mostly crack in my area) but bored kids with no parental control who think it's "cool" to steal are another big reason. Our office gets at least half a dozen 17 year olds charged with B&E, or worse robbery, each week - and we're not a big city!

Sucks it happened to you though.

911vet

Dude, you're 18 years old and you own a Porsche!

You don't need cheering up!!

Batman 357

Sorry man, no place is except from turds. They did not get in or set it on fire, just for fun. It could have been a lot worse. There is always some risk regardless where you park. I don’t leave anything worth taking in my 911. It draws a lot of attention as is.