i had someone do something similar broke in nice and clean, and stole 3 dollars worth of change, and some candy i had in the back. Left a flip out dvd, a ton of cd's and my subs.
if this is a scam why would the owner do that? he already has a STi!!! so he strips those parts of himself then tells the insurance they are gone and then he gets the same parts replaced by the insurance company...so now he has doubles of everything....or am i missing a huge part of insurance fraud?
^^i guess... wouldn't you think his deductible would be just as much as some PDR and touch up painting?
It really makes no sense... Why would they take the seats and the hood and fenders and not the less conspicuous to sell BBS rims? or the STI intercooler... or even the turbo for that matter, from the looks of the pictures they would have been there for a while!
I'm just glad that my boyscout troop and I didn't get caught. Yet. Things like this always smell like scam to me just because of two facts. #1. They would need a huge van to get these parts from the scene and that size vehicle sitting in one place for a long time gets noticed. #2. The removal of these parts at night would require light and it would make noise. People notice light and noise.
With all these movies we watch...It is not hard to plan for when the van or pick-up truck needs to be called on to load this stuff. Secondly if it was 4 people doing the job, all they need is a simple flash light. Everyone is talkin about tires But it was definately not their interest in this mission. The last thing is that Robbers always have luck when stealing no one ever thinks of them as being thieves...
Maybe the owner is upside down on the car or can't keep up with payments? trade-in is abysmal these days... especially compared to what an insurance company would pay out on a total loss claim. I'm sorry, but in the time it takes to remove the front seats, you could remover the door cards, rear seat, trunk, stereo, and intercooler... if it isn't a scam, then it looks too well planned out to be so poorly executed. Something doesn't add up.
Why not just get a flatbed and take the whole car at that point. I think what people are trying to say is that there is too much work involved to pull this off in a public parking lot. This looks like a condo or appt building. to the best of my knowledge they don't even allow people to work on their cars.
Well all thieves have a purpose when they come to steal...They didn't care for the whole car...I 've seen a car in dinky town(mpls) where all the 4 tires were stolen off it and this was in a public parking lot before midnight with other cars around. Funny enough no one saw them yet there was a chance of someone coming to pick up or come in to drive off. So all i'm saying anything can happen
The cost to replace all of those parts has to be fairly high. Add in the fact that they cut the gauge pod wires, and the whole dash would need to be rewired, the labor rate on that would be outrageous. If nothing else, they cut him a check to replace his parts, he retrieves the "stolen" parts from wherever he hid them, and walks away with the check and his original parts. Scam.
BBS wheels may be tough to steal if he has wheel locks??? I beg to differ as far as the thieves choice of parts to steal (at least for some parts)... headlights are quick and easy and $700 a piece, it doesn't take long to pop a guage cluster out either and thats a solid $500 if not more, seats are only 4 bolts and are $600... all of these can quickly and easily be stolen with a cordless drill and the correct size nut driver bits. I kinda question why they took the fenders though :dunno: I can't imagine anyone cutting the gauge cluster wires if it was fraud. Those wiring harnesses are A LOT of work to replace, and if someone was commiting fraud they are probably intending on putting all the parts back together themselves. Just my 2 cents
If those where the parts I wanted, I'd take it just like that. With power tools those parts don't take that long to pull off at all. The seats are simple bolts. The fenders are really simple and the hood is REALLY simple.
