So my car was broken into...

[allyourblood]

This past Saturday night/Sunday morning, someone broke into my car and took all of my audio equipment. If you'll indulge me for just a few moments, I want to vent a small bit:

I do not drive a flashy car; in fact, it looks pretty ugly by most accounts: '97 Civic with peeling paint and scratched-up hubcaps. I don't care for cars in general, nor do I like driving; it's simply never been my thing. In fact, when my wife and I go somewhere, 9 times out of 10 she drives because I dislike it so much. Most days, I want to be in my car as little as possible. The one ray of sunshine I could look forward to, was being able to play the music I like through a quality sound system. It's quite literally the only thing I like about driving, ever.

Despite my car being equipped with 2 amplifiers and a pair of 12" subwoofers, I do not drive down the road with my music roaring away, and generally only "crank it" on the freeway, or long roads where I'm not likely to attract attention or offend anyone... especially not near my house. I don't play rap music, and while a lot of the music I do like has a lot of bass, I built my sound system for quality; not volume. I like music, and when I get in my car, I want it to sound as good as possible. I always turn down my stereo when I'm nearing my neighborhood, in order to avoid having people know that I own some halfway decent equipment. While the area in which I live is not really crime-ridden, it's also not the ritziest part of town, and my wife did have a car stolen from our driveway about 4 years ago. Still, things are pretty quiet and uneventful around here.

My wife and I keep to ourselves, and we don't associate with drug users, thieves or other such riff raff (two things I can't stand in life are a thief, and a liar). Between us, we have about 4 friends, not counting family. I am extraordinarily strict about who I keep company with, and no one enters my house or car without being completely trustworthy. Absolutely none of my relatives or friends would ever be a party to any sort of crime.

I mention all of the above so no one here thinks I'm the type of guy who had this coming to him, by way of irresponsibility or associating with the sort of lowlife this type of thing requires. This was either a random theft, or someone following me across town without my knowledge and making note of where I live, in order to partake of my property at a later time.

What disappoints me the most, besides the loss of the equipment, is how hard I worked to build the system to begin with, and now I've nothing to show for it. Four years ago, my dad and I, with no prior knowledge, carefully designed, wired, and built a really excellent audio installation. Top notch cable management, great amplifier placement, upper range accessories... the whole bit. None of my stuff was absolutely top-of-the-line, but it was all high quality gear that took me weeks of research to narrow down, and of course, hundreds of dollars to buy. My old head unit (read: stereo for the uninitiated) gave up the ghost about 2 months ago, and I spent a couple weeks determining just the right one to replace it with. It was still pretty much brand new, moderately expensive, and as such, it stings just a little more than the other pieces.

Now all that remains is a salad of loose and frayed wires in my trunk and a gaping hole in my dashboard.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm not a fan of driving (or being in a car at all), so the last couple of drives to work have been really disheartening. I haven't been on the site much in the last couple days because of this. I mentioned a few times to folks here that I am planning a Thanksgiving raffle. That's still gonna happen, but I've been so distracted and frustrated with the whole affair that it's probably still gonna be a few more days. My apologies for the delay, but don't worry -- it's still on.

Anyway, if you read this far, thanks for taking the time. I mainly just wanted to get that off my chest. If any of you have had something similar happen, you likely know precisely how I'm feeling right now. I'll be over it in a few days, but for right now, it feels good just to tell the story to someone, and you folks are always really nice, so I wanted to share. Thanks again!

[MotherGunner]

I feel your pain man.  Two of my cars were broken into in the past.  One, got my Rockford Fosgate setup along with my CD collection (stuff I had since the 80s when CDs were still sold in tall cardboard boxes).  Talk about wanting to cry.  The second, some GD wetbacks stole it and when found, a hooker was using it to "work" out of the back seat.  $900 in shampoo jobs later, the stink was still there. Traded it in.  These days I no longer spend money on good audio and my music is all digital now.   This too shall pass.  =/

[nodtveidt]

When my wife was in the hospital having our first child, her mother's car was broken into while it was parked right outside of the hospital. Someone really had some big brass ones. Police didn't care. I hope something better comes of your situation.

[roflmao]

I feel your pain, AYB.  A few years back my car was broken into right outside my apartment.  When I called the police they told me that there was a rash of break-ins that night  within a few miles of where I lived so I guess I wasn't the only one hit.  I had an Infinity Basslink sub in the trunk which they took, but worse than that, I had a Nintendo 64 with a bunch of controllers and games that they took.  At the time I worked with a brain injury rehabilitation organization as a life skills trainer and I would bring in the N64 so a bunch of the guys could play Mario Party.  My insurance company covered the cost to replace the window and even got me a newer model of the sub (which came with a remote!) but they wouldn't cover the N64.  One of these days I'll get another one, since I still have a bunch of games and controllers for it.  Heck, I still have the original box the system came in!

Here are a couple of pics:







Notice they left the rollerblades... :p

[SignOfZeta]

That sucks man. Look at the bright side: now you can build a good home stereo, which will always sound better than anything going on inside a crap can Civic.

[henrycsc]

Yeah guys, bummer about all the break ins.  I've had it happen to me too.  Aside from physical assault, I can't think of anything that makes you feel more violated.  Good luck with repairs and getting things back to normal.

[Joe Redifer]

That sucks man. Look at the bright side: now you can build a good home stereo, which will always sound better than anything going on inside a crap can Civic.

True, but I think the reason that so many people love their car stereos is because they don't have to worry about annoying neighbors or other people in the house.  It can be a very private and personal experience (for me, it's a good set of quality headphones).  You have to be in a house and the next house can't be tremendously close for you to be able to really get true enjoyment out of a home sound system.

As for my car (2008 Civic), the radio is built in to the dash, they'd have to take the whole dashboard to get the radio and then they wouldn't be able to sell it to anyone else but a Civic owner.  And it's not a good radio. But it still has a security system that blinks a red light every few seconds the car is off as if someone would want to steal it anyway.  If the power is disconnected, you have to punch in a specific code from the car's manual.

[TheClash603]

Camp outside with a shotgun and hope that the guy comes back for another car.  Vigilante justice from now on.  This kinda stuff makes me sick!

[SignOfZeta]

Yeah, murdering a guy over a stereo. f*cking brilliant.  You'd feel great about that for the next 10-15.

[TheClash603]

Yeah, murdering a guy over a stereo. f*cking brilliant.  You'd feel great about that for the next 10-15.

You just got to scare them with it.  I never said anything about murder.  Shooting up in the air is pretty sweet.

[RR1980]

As a victim of physical assault a few yrs back I can totally relate to what you said about you "not having it coming to you". The worst part for me was that the guy ended up being my neighbour from across the street but my roommates really didn't want me to go to the cops because I was moving out of the country in a few days and they were afraid they might have suffer some level of retaliation once I have left so I didn't.

[SignOfZeta]

Yeah, murdering a guy over a stereo. f*cking brilliant.  You'd feel great about that for the next 10-15.

You just got to scare them with it.  I never said anything about murder.  Shooting up in the air is pretty sweet.

What you are describing is the begining of a stupid situation gone wrong. It's happened a thousand times. There are a lot of opinions on gun ownership, but playing around with them like you describe is just f*cking stupid. It's how people end up dead or in jail. 

[allyourblood]

I imagine TheClash was mostly joking. I was pretty angry at first, and admittedly, I still am. But like I mentioned before, I'll get over it.

Thanks for the mostly civil responses, gang. I feel much better already. I feel for those of you who've had to deal with the same, or worse.

[munchiaz]

that really sucks. I haven't had this happen to me ( i dont own a car) but my good friend had his car stolen twice. the first time, so people just drove it around. the second time they took out his radio, which included his AC unit, and we live in arizona, and he didnt have the cash to fix it. it was literally hell riding in that car

[PunkicCyborg]

Someone recently broke into my work truck and stole an old Ipod. They didn't touch any of my expensive tools, laptop, other electronics, nothing but the Ipod. I've had it for about 4 years now and the glass was all cracked but it was my main source of music. I am a music nut so this hit me kind of hard. It's not like they could sell it or anything and it was pretty beat up. It had all my music and I spend a lot of time driving for work so I was so ticked off. It was just something worth nothing to anyone  but myself.