Frank 993 C4S

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The following article was forwarded to me by a friend on Thursday. For those who don't know, my (white) Euro delivery car is currently stored in Germany at a dealer (but it does not have Arabic plates):

150,000 Euro destroyed in minutes

Poing - Unidentified thief totals rare Porsche GT3 racing version and disappears. Police are scrathcing their heads.

Police have never seen this before: As they were called to the crash site Wednesday night at the Gruber Strasse in Poing, they discovered a totalled white Porsche GT3 with special options at the side of the road. The driver was missing.

As per the police, whitnesses have seen the car travel at high speed through the town of Poing. Somewhere, the driver lost control of the car and subsequently hit a gate and the side of a house. Even though the the car was totalled - the rear axle was broken and one tire was ripped from the rim - the unknown driver continued for another 500 meters. He then proceeded to park the car and fled on foot.

Not only are the chain of event unusual, but the car also had Arabic license plates. As per the Porsche Zentrum Munich, the base price for such a car is 150,000 Euro. The police is now looking for whitnesses that observed the accident or may have information related to the driver......

eclou

At Stuttgart the delivery specialists made alot of warning comments about cars getting stolen in Europe - hotels, valets at restaurants, etc. They said alot of these cases are inside jobs. My delivery guy was especially leery of anyone driving their cars in Italy - seemed to have developed a deep distrust for that region - and cautioned that many times at rest stops thieves will approach you to sell trinkets and then take your car. Even more interesting is that if you lose your second factory key, your insurance for the car is null and void for theft! I even considered FedEx-ing our second key home as a precaution.

Marv

Update:

Police are searching for a suspect named Deitrick.

007GT3

This Dietrick guy gets around. Totals a ferrari Enzo in Malibu, now a porsche in Germany.

What a life!

ag

Interesting. I had an exceedingly similar experience when my 2000 C4 (with PAG racing buckets, TQ harness bar, GT3 wheels and suspension-in summary-a verrry beatifully set-up car) was stolen from a dealership. Only it was in the SF Bay Area of California and the damage to the car was considerably more extensive. The car had been parked inside the service area, blocked in by several cars which were moved to get to my car. Conveniently, all of the needed keys were readily available in an unlocked box near the cars. Ended up being fully reimbursed but it was quite a strange experience. It does happen........

CWay27

This reminds me of a trip five years ago in Switzerland, I had rented a Benz from hertz and couldn't set foot in Italy. Their high end cars were not covered because of theft.

Red9

Ditto--- I had booked Benz to collect in Frankfurt and only in passing conversation I mentioned going to Italy -- whoa ,all hell broke loose. Settled on an Audi ( delivery kms only ) which was ok to take wherever.Proved to be a very nice car.
Seems that some makes have a habit of dissappearing across the Adriatic to wherever never to be seen again.
That was a few years ago-I presume not much will have changed.
BTW --on another trip in Italy I had brand new Alfa-- easy to understand why it would not be stolen!

C.J. Ichiban

theft in a recession? who does such a thing? lol.

if you stick to northern italy (como) or some areas in central italy (florence) it's not so bad- but genoa, pisa, rome, naples, etc and you're asking for trouble. I actually let a police officer in modena, italy drive my gt3 in 07 during my euro delivery because they were giving me a hard time. after he got out he gave me a hug and said thank you a million times...then we drag raced down the street.

hell of a way to see the old world!

pete95zhn

Anything south of the Alps is basically Africa ( this according to Germans...don't shoot the messenger ) . And about Italy, their PM Berlusconi is one of the biggest mafiosos ever. Corruption and crime is built into that society.

ze_shark

Well, still, the UK is said to have the worst car theft and vandalism stats in western Europe. Italy has become a large urban legend that stems from the 70's-80's. Whatever happens in the higher spheres of the stateconomy, it's not to steal cars. There's so much more money to be made in constructoin, energy, media, utilities, trash, etc ...

mikegee

one of my car BUDS came home from a two week vacation ( three years ago) and his cherry 1963 split-window corvette coupe was missing from his garage. it has never been found.

the garage door was up, but a man size section was cut out of it. They cut the door, went in the garage, raised it from the inside, and took the car. The neighbors never heard or saw anything!!!!!