A Totally Odd Car Theft

epiclylaterd · December 2014

Hi all,

I park my car on the same block as my apartment, Park b/w Rogers and Nostrand and came to realize that someone had been inside my car overnight. There were a few things that were in the glove compartment left on the floor (unimportant papers and a CD.) As my wife and I tried to remember if either one of us had been in the glove compartment for any reason, I opened my trunk and found my drill case was unlocked but the contents were still inside. The oddest part of this whole thing is that, someone was in my car, left all of the somewhat "valuable" things in there (GPS in the console, headphones, drill, belt sander, skateboards etc) and took two of the least important things in there, a bag of quarters for tolls and a wire that hooks up my old phone to the car and can only be used with that model car.

What gives? I'm assuming it was kids and this was a dare of some sort? None of these things were left in plain sight and I almost always lock my doors unless I forget. My lock looks like it was tampered with. Has this happened to anyone? Almost 4 years in the nabe and I havent had an issue. It could have been worse. I got hit up by the most thoughtful thief ever.

MOD · December 2014

Sounds like it was some kids. I once had a drunk break into my car, he took nothing but left puke

Hey, at least it wasn't a stinky hobo!

epiclylaterd · December 2014

It's times like this that I miss the nice young guys that used to deal drugs outside of the building. At least they used to keep watch on the block!

whynot_31 · December 2014

We certainly have left behind the days when we could reliably see a guy ride up on a bike, park the bike, and then walk down a block with a flashlight looking into cars, to see if they had anything worth stealing.

eastbloc · December 2014

I've had quarters taken from my car and other things untouched.

I suspect their liquidity makes them more desirable than your GPS, which is a liability to possess and a pain in the ass to fence.

brooklynpotter · December 2014

when my car was broken into they took both a giant bag of ziplocks and a giant box of garbage bags, things i'd bought at costco and had not yet brought upstairs. i guess the bags help them steal things from other cars.

foolio · December 2014

i see the aftermath of burglared cars on dean st near vanderbilt fairly often. i have to steer my dog away from the broken glass on the edge of the sidewalk. once i saw a shady guy inspecting the cars late at night. he split after we made eye contact. condo construction barriers have taken over that block now so no more cars to get broken into there.

epiclylaterd · January 2016

Welp, I'm back on this thread to report another totally bizarre incident with my car.

On the way home from work, I started noticing the smell of grease in the car. I thought it was the car ahead of me and didn't think too much of it. The remainder of my short commute home, the smell started getting worse and worse...to the point where it was giving me a headache.

When I parked, I checked under the car for any leaks. There were none. When I opened my hood, I was in disbelief. There was pieces of chicken, chicken fat and rice strewn all over my engine.

This is now the third, extremely odd, thing that has happened to my car in the last few months. I filed a police report knowing there wasn't much that could be done and I am going to stop parking on my block...but what the actual hell. How dangerous of a prank is that.

The most bizarre thing is that the hood was closed shut and there seems to be no forced entry. The latch is hidden incredibly well. I've read that remotes to steal car fob signals are relatively cheap, but does someone really have the time to target me like that? My other thought was that maybe I've just hit some bad luck and it could have been a rat picking up things and storing it in my engine, which I would actually prefer to be honest. I'd rather not think someone was targeting my car for a prank.

I don't know. I'm still in shock. Just had to post this to get it off my chest!

whynot_31 · January 2016

My first theory is rats.

rogers_sterling · January 2016

Rat or squirrel. We had a nice big nest built in ours, parking in Crown Heights.

ingenuity-jen · January 2016

That's totally nuts! Glad you caught it before it caught fire or something.

crownheightster · January 2016

Holy jesus.

homeowner · January 2016

Suggestion for you. Don't park at the end of the block near JC Mar (El Sabo La). They put out their foodscraps and garbage appropriately bagged, but there is both a colony of feral cats as well as a pretty active rat presence on that block. Your car would be seen as a lovely storage spot by either group, and both can be pretty savvy about ripping their way into the buffet (garbage).

epiclylaterd · January 2016

@homeowner definitely! As I've had some time to think about it, all signs are really pointing to some type of animal situation rather than harassment/prank. I parked 3 cars back from the corner of JC Mar, probably right where they put their garbage out. I've sprayed some parts of the engine with a de-greasing spray, but there's still a faint smell which I'm hoping will just burn off.

A Totally Odd Car Theft

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