Trac Broken Into

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Johnny O

Johnny O

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2005
Messages
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Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Left my Trac at the dealer on Tuesday for a check engine light (this is in my other thread). They call late yesterday, had to order a new intertia switch, be in today. Sure, I can leave it overnight. Then they call this morning, "Have some bad news for you Mr. O., someone broke into your truck last night." Broken right rear window, broken right rear door quarter window, glass all over the interior, stolen XM radio and about 15 CD's. Bastiges.... Dealer says no problem, they'll replace everything.



What kills me is that my XM is a $17 Roady 2 and they never saw the $400 Valentine One radar detector in the drawer under the rear seat (thanks, Coastiejoe).



I'll post pics when I get home.
 
Sorry for the issue, glad they were honest about it and brought it to your attention.



Looks like those cheap little drawers saved some aggrivasion... LOL
 
That is very nice of your dealer. Technically they don't have to do that and it would fall under your insurance.
 
True, a long time ago when I was in college my Firebird, um, caught fire, and while it was at the dealer my 8-track player got stolen (I said it was a long time ago :lol: ). The Pontiac dealer wouldn't do a thing about it.



Had to go with Cardomain, the resolution on the wife's digital SLR was crushing the file space on MYST.



Broken rear window. That's where my greyhound decal was too. Bastiges....

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Door window, kinda hard to see.

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Inside.

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Roger, you can sort of see one in the interior pic. K-Mart, Wal-Mart, whatever, just storage containers. No sense letting space go to waste.



I forgot to mention earlier, my day got even better. I had a window job not far from the Ford dealer anyway, so I went there after checking out my truck. Finish up, I'm carrying my ladder and stuff through the yard to my van and stepped in a big pile of dog isht.
 
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Nelson - I don't think an employee would have to break the windows, they can just steal the stuff while the work on it. That is why they have the big sign saying "not responsible for any items left in the vehicle" at shops.
 
looks like an employee wanted to make it look like an outside job and broke a window (rear) and realized that you cant open the door from there without leaning on the broken glass and then they smashed the door window to make it practical. if your gonna break a window, and steal something in the front, why break a window in the back?



not that i was a thief as a youth, might be too much CSI :lol:
 
I would have asked if they had a surveilance system. Did anyone call the police or suggest that they be called? I realize that your really not out anything except maybe a little time to replace the windows but it doesn't mean that whoever did it should just get away with it, maybe someone else down the road had the same problem and they are out something. I would think that the dealer would want to atleast try to find out who did it rather than just eat the cost of repair and also to prevent repeats. If the dealer did not care to call the police at all then that would lead me to believe that they did suspect it was an employee.



Around here we often have motor vehicle break-ins at auto shops, the smaller more rural ones make excelent targets for a stop and grab thief. Most of them plainly post that they are not responsible for stolen items.
 
About 10 years ago. I had a 93 Mustang GT broken into at a ford dealer. They stole an Alpine head unit, amp, speakers, etc. The car was left in the back behind the dealer that night in an unfenced, partially screened location. Security systems weren't widely available back then. Turned out to be an inside job fromt he dealer. The cops had an informer that heard through the grapevine this guy was tipping off friends of what cars had. They were caught about 3 months later. I got my stuff back, went to court, confronted the punk kids in the court hall I was so mad and was restrained. They were all sentanced to 3-5 years in prison. They also paid for repairs in small lump sums and lost pay and travel. I was paid through the court in full.



Chances are it was an inside job. I have a good standing relationship with the dealer I go to. I ask them if the ST or any car stays over night keep it indoors. Sure enough I drive by and its locked up indoors, even a couple of times on the lift.
 
You'd think a dealer would have better protection then that. If it's a large dealer, chances are they may not have enough room for all the vehicles, but at least some entry-control fences or something. It does look a bit suspicious, but you're getting your stuff back and they guy who did it is probably fired, although some fines/jail time would be nice.



I used to work at a repair shop, often had high-dollar imports to stay overnight, we always parked vehicles inside, we could manage to park around 12 vehicles in a 2-bay shop.
 
The don't have security cameras. The dealer had already called the police, I have Officer Friendly's name and number and left a message. Service mgr says they cops searched it and found a red billy club that was used to break the glass. "Uh, no, that was mine." :blink: I'll report what CD's are missing (one was autographed), see what turns up in the pawn shop and used record store in town. I rather doubt it was an inside job. They don't have much employee turnover and it's not exactly in the nicest part of the nicest town. The XM turned into a paperweight about 5 minutes after I called them.
 
well down here they had some people start stealing the cats off of new cars at the dealer. about 30 new cars. soory for you lost at least it is getting fixed.
 
Wow Johnny, lucky you that the dealership is willing to replace everything! Most of the time they posts signs saying they are not responsible!
 
I can steal a car off my dealer's lot any night of the week if I want to. Their nightime drop box is on a door to the service bays, and that door isn't locked from 6:30pm to almost 11:00pm at night. It's closed during that time, but not locked. The service area is around the back, the sales in the front.



Anyone can just open that door, grab a key, and take a car...(of course they have to know which car). Some people actually leave their key and fob, making it pretty easy to find the car.



Anyway, I have discussed the "uneasy" feeling I have with this situation with my service manager. They said: "Well it's never been a problem!" Duh...things are never a problem until there is a problem. That's the nature of problems!



Dealer lot security pretty much sucks, or so is my experience.



TJR
 

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