This is topic My poor car... in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 03-05-2006, 02:02 AM:
 
Well, it's official.... I've finally gotten personally attacked while at work - in a sense.

Tonight my two tires on the drivers side of my car got slashed. Luckily my bestestestest friend Sean McKinnon (Long time F-Techer who is now too good to ever post) was around to give me a ride home because I work about an hour from where I live, and at 2AM its hard to find a ride. Needless to say, I'm not happy.

Why do theater parking lots tend to be spots of car attacks? Because there are so many teens around? I've never really noticed it half as bad at malls around the same area...

I don't know, just ranting.
 

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Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 03-05-2006, 03:02 AM:
 
Rachel, that's awful! I know something like that doesn't exactly give you confidence that your car is okay when you're at work. One place I worked at kept having trouble like that. My car got it twice in just a few weeks.. once in about a 15 min. period when I went in to pick up my check or something and came right back out. I was so p-o'd! I ended up quitting and moving on because of the rampant vandalism at that place.

Hope it was just an isolated incident for you.
Be safe.
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-05-2006, 07:22 AM:
 

quote: Rachel Gilardi

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Why do theater parking lots tend to be spots of car attacks? Because there are so many teens around?

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My guess would be large number of cars left unattended, and it's easy to work out when the place is likely to be deserted (e.g. the two hours or so between the last shows going in and turning out) so that thieves and yobs can move in and do their worst. Fortunately, all the theatres I worked at were city centre ones without large car parks, so that was one hassle I managed to bypass.

When I was a student living in a down-at-heel part of Exeter, I was advised by a friend who'd had his car nicked to remove the rotor arm from the distributor whenever I was leaving it for any significant length of time. A few months later I returned from work at the cinema at around 1am, to find a fire engine next to the burnt-out shell of my car. The one parked next to it had been stolen. We could only presume that, having broken into it, the yobs were so frustrated at not being able to start my car that they torched it, simply out of spite.

As Norman Tebbit (a well known British politician from the '80s) once said, 'As far as the death penalty goes, I'm a moderate. I agree with it, but only for criminals.'
 

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Posted by Brian Michael Weidemann (Member # 2243) on 03-05-2006, 12:54 PM:
 
Well, what were you thinkin', Leo? I mean, the MORE lengths you go to protect what is already rightfully yours to protect ... well, that's all the MORE reason for you to be taught a lesson!

No, but seriously, that super-sucks!

A few years ago, my car was parked outside the house, on the street. At 2:00am, some drunk dumbass in a heavy-duty truck runs a stop sign on a cross street, going 70mph, hits the dip (that, funnily enough, was the reason for the stop sign), loses control, veers, hits my car head on, pushes it 200 feet up the street and into a wall. Total loss. The insurance covered the remainder of what I owed on the car, and about $1500 on top of that ... which I was expected to get another car with?



I salvaged would I could from the trunk, at the scene of the crime, which included an $800 guitar, and a $400 amplifier.

Although my case is not vandalism, the feeling of loss, and having been violated, is just a terrible place to be in. Our cars are special to us, and we leave them unattended longer than we occupy them. I'm not sure what my point is, except to say I feel your pain, Rachel.
 

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Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 03-05-2006, 03:35 PM:
 
Leo posted a great reply about removing the distributor rotor.

Some other helpful hints are to install a hard to find cutoff switch somewhere around the car, the point is it acts as a secondary "ignition" switch.

THe classic that I love....and that you can now get into legal trouble for, was to hook up a 500V or so capicator circuit to your door and ignition locks. This would give an unsuspecting thief the shock of their life when attempting to "jimmy" the door and/or ignition locks!
 

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Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 03-05-2006, 06:46 PM:
 

quote: Brian Michael Weidemann

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$1500 on top of that ... which I was expected to get another car with?

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The $1,500 would probably be used for a downpayment on another car, leaving you with about the same equity in a different car that you had with this car before the accident, maybe?
 

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Posted by Brian Michael Weidemann (Member # 2243) on 03-05-2006, 07:05 PM:
 
Same equity? Not a chance. I came out a good $4000 upside down on the deal (given a decent-to-low Blue Book value). I wasn't implying that I was actually "expected" to do anything with what I ended up with. The insurance could only do so much, and I took the loss, begrudgingly. I'm not with 21th Century anymore.

quote: Will Kutler

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...and that you can now get into legal trouble for

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What, only in the courts that favor the breaking/entering criminal who cut himself on the glass table he broke while breaking/entering, I imagine? As long as it ain't lethal, it oughta be legal!
 

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Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 03-06-2006, 01:48 AM:
 
Hi Brian

We had a Crime Watch in my parents old neighborhood in Tucson, of which they were the leaders.

Anyhow, our Crime Watch officer told of a notorious case where a theif was breaking into peoples homes (when they were not there) via skylights. Anyhow, on one burglary, this thief fell through the victim's skylight and broke his leg.

The criminal subsequently sued his victims for personal injury and one his case, collecting major $$ from his would-be victims!

Also, in Arizona, one is not allowed to use force to protect ones property. The only time one is allowed to use physical force against a would be criminal is if the intended victim is being bodily threatened.

Another notorious Arizona case, told to us by our Crime Watch officer was of a criminal who broke into a family's home at night and was armed. The residents were aroused, and the man of the house armed himself with his gun. The homeowner shot the invader, who fell backward through the window that he used to enter the victims home and landed outside. Guess who was arrested!...not the invader!
 

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Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 03-06-2006, 01:33 PM:
 
Local cops around here have always said, if you shot an intruder and he lands outside, be sure to drag him in the house.
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-06-2006, 02:25 PM:
 
...taking care to clean up the trail of blood and guts which leads to your front door, presumably.
 

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Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 03-06-2006, 10:37 PM:
 
Got my car back.... it looked so sad on the flatbed.

$170 bucks later I can now drive it back to where it got slashed, crossing my fingers it doesn't happen again.
 

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Posted by Paul Goulet (Member # 297) on 03-07-2006, 11:40 AM:
 
Rachel,
Just send the bill to Bill Hanney.. He'll pay it for you...
 

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Posted by Phil Blake (Member # 2012) on 03-07-2006, 09:47 PM:
 
One of the constant worries of working late, car damage. We have the same problem here and believe it or not the local police station is right across the road! We have had customers cars damaged , broken windows , badges ripped off etc.
Having 2 cars i get around this problem by taking the old bucket of bolts to work, it looks to sad for anyone to bother with.
 

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Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 03-08-2006, 12:26 PM:
 
Yeah, on the weekends I'm going to start taking my Boyfriends car to work because he has an old bucket of bolts chevy.

I guess this is just going to be a fact of working in Cambridge, MA (Harvard anyone?).
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-08-2006, 02:38 PM:
 
Maybe the President of Harvard was so frustrated at just having been fired that he felt the need to vandalise a few cars for stress relief?
 

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Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 03-08-2006, 03:43 PM:
 
Nah, it was that Harvard "Hasty Pudding" crowd that did it. Why else would they wear disguises?

http://www.hastypudding.org/new/

http://www.hastypudding.org/new/pages/about/history.shtml

quote:

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The modern Pudding show has evolved into a spectacle beyond anything ever envisioned by the founders of the original secret society. Undergraduates are now provided guidance by theatrical veterans in all aspects of the production, while sets and costumes rival those of many professional shows. Still, the show remains in its essence a no-holds-barred burlesque, with men playing both the male and female roles. Women are involved in all other aspects of the show, from technical staff, to the band, to authoring and producing the show. With the introduction of the Woman of the Year celebration in 1951, and the Man of the Year in 1967, the Pudding has gained a truly international audience.

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