stolen system

[mr4pto 10+ year member]

Fellow Car Enthusiasts,

I know this is sort of an out reach, but I was wondering and hoping maybe I can get advice or a clue to help me in my situation.

I live in the Atlanta, GA area and attend the Georgia Institute of Technology. This morning, April 25, 2003, my car along with 7 other vehicles parked in the same place as me were broken into and I had almost all of my car audio stuff stolen. Extremely crappy. I spent months putting this system together and thousands of dollars and am extremely upset over this. I am sure many of you can relate and have dealt with similiar situations and I am also sure many of you understand how I feel.

Here is my point for this post. Firstly my insurance company has told me they will not cover anything in the vehicle except the headunit because I did not have some extended coverage on the rest of the equipment. So therefore I basically just lost it all unless I can some how recover it through the police. I am wondering if any of you have dealt with this and can possibly give any sort of direction. I feel very cheated by insurance, and I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem or thinks that it shouldn't be a problem, etc. Also in general if anyone can give me any advice at all at what actions I can possibly take.

Secondly I ask all of you who live in this general area that if you have any clue of who may have done this or are possibly offered my stolen stuff that you please help me out. You can post or email me at gtg579b@prism.gatech.edu. Please if you have any information get in contact with me. If it really helps me I would gladly give a reward to anyone who helped me get my stuff back or almost more importantly have the people who stole it arrested.

Thank you for your help or at least advice. The following is a detailed list of what was taken:

Eclipse CD5441 Headunit

Xtant X1001 amplifier (newer model with black heat sink. Also parts of the cover were cut to allow wire access in which is a distinction of my amp.)

Xtant 604X amplifier (older model with gold heat sinks. There was some minor scratches on the casing, nothing else defining)

2 JL 10W7 subwoofers. They were in a tan carpetted box. They were in perfect phyiscal condition.

2 Digital Monster 1 Farad Capacitators

That's the list of the expensive things that were stolen. I know this is sort of an outreach but I don't see where it can do any harm. Would appreciate any comments or thoughts about the issue. Thank you.

Robert

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[xplicit 10+ year member]

and i thought getting my bike stolen when i was 12 was harsh..

first off im verry sorry to hear about your situation man, it must be burning a **** hole in you heh..

does where you live have any survalence system or anything like that?... id investigate the ****... talk to the cops, neighbors, see what was going on that night, or if anyone was around that looked suspicious...

far as insurance.... everyone are greedy bastards now adays... i found that out when just 2 months ago i bought a 1995 dodge stratus.. even tho it has 117,000 miles on it, i was told the car was in perfect condition, then on the highway today the car started flipping out, died, then i pulled over to the side, both belts were fried, and totally snapped. if thats not the worse.... my breaks are totally shot in the process.... so im down the drain almost 700 bucks to get that **** fixed...

anyways man i wish u the BEST OF luck on getting your system, or whatever els was so wrongly taken from yourself.... find the bastards, kick their ass personally, then steal something of theres! lol. latez

 

[Jdg784 10+ year member]

I'll be on the lookout for that man, that really *****. Btw how do you like Ga Tech? I'll be down there in August.

 

[mr4pto 10+ year member]

Hey thanks xplicit for the support. I only hope the thiefs get what they deserve. There is no camera's in the deck and it is supposed to be police surveillanced all night, but you know how that is. I had a full police report filed and hopefully they are working on it and maybe will get somewhere. I wish I could say I had faith in them, but with the way the world's been treating me I dont know how much faith I have in anything good right now.

Jdg784 -- Thanks man. Any help I can get in this are would be very helpful. I would imagine they will try to turn around and sell it, but who knows ... it could already be sitting in the back of some drug dealers escalade sitting on the rims he stole last week and bumping with the stereo they got from me today driving around buckhead tonight. As far at Georgia Tech goes its good. Its all what you make of it and it all depends on who you are and stuff. If you have any questions or want to know some stories you can feel free to email me. I am through with my second year almost and have had it real rough at times, and real good at others. Email is gtg579b@prism.gatech.edu. Thanks for even caring.

Robert

 

[xjmadness 10+ year member]

i'll be on the lookout as well. Did you get the serial #'s for your products? If so, i suggest you search local pawn shops.

 

[mr4pto 10+ year member]

I have the serial for my headunit (which was protected by esn so virtually worthless to who ever stole, dumb bastard) and for my x1001. I got the 604x without a box and I never got the boxes to my subwoofers. I'll try to go to some pawn shops. If anyone who lives in the area can give me a general idea of what pawn shops are around other than those on cobb parkway that would help. Thanks for the good idea.

Robert

 

[Gauntlet 5,000+ posts]

Sorry man, it's happened to me before, and it fuc*ing *****. Since you don't have insurance, all hope lies on the police. These are some steps you can take:

Was it stolen at a parking lot on campus or of a business of some sort? If so, contact the necessary people to see if there is a camera monitoring the lot. If it was a public parking lot, you're probably **** out of luck. But if it's a business or establishment of some form, and they dont have cameras or parking lot security, you could file a complaint or possibly sue for negligence or something, a lawyer would be able to give you better advice in that area. If you have the serial numbers, you could give them to local pawn shops or other shops that will give refunds without receipts. Also, check the classifieds and garage sales and whatnot. You could also email eBay and describe what happened, and they can inform you if any items similar to yours are placed up for auction. You probably won't have any luck in that area, but it's worth a shot.

Also, talk to the other people whose cars got robbed, and see what was stolen and talk to the police with them. Whoever stole your **** clearly broke into all the other cars too, so if the police are able to find an item from another persons car, that means they have the person that stole your stuff as well. That's probably your best hope. Whoever broke into all the cars wasn't after one specific thing, meaning they didn't hear your system and target you, they just happened to get very, very lucky. So that means they are most likely trying to find as many items as possible for resale value, and with so many cars broken into, there's a greater chance of them getting caught.

Good luck man, I know the feeling. I didn't have insurance when my system got stolen, and I wasn't able to get any of the items back. If you do get the stuff back, or if you're forced to get all new equipment, definitely get insurance. It ***** having to learn the hard way.

 

[dubsports 10+ year member]

I shed a tear for you when I saw w7...

 

[mr4pto 10+ year member]

yeah... the amps are worse ... alot worse ...

 

[drkodin 10+ year member]

**** man, you had some nice equipment, that really *****.

this may be a long shot, but i would at least give this a try. Some people have had luck by telling the insurance companies that all thier stuff was bolted to the car. Since it was bolted, it tecnically becomes part of the car and is covered under normal insurance. Just drill some holes in the car to where you "bolted" your stuff down.

this IS insurance fraud by the way, since your stuff wasn't bolted down, but it is still a legitimate theft that IMO should be covered since you pay them every month.

 

[mr4pto 10+ year member]

Well actually my stuff WAS in fact bolted down to the vehicle. The amps were in a amplifier rack/box that was supposedly bolted to down underneith and my sub box was also supposedly bolted down underneith. I could probably ocnfirm this better when I see my car again or if I can locate my installer. One I had it installed he told me that everything was bolted to the vehicle. And in fact I mean you couldn't move the boxes at all. I mean they were permanent in there. The people who stole it must have literally ripped it out with a crow baror something. I have numerous picture of the installation as well. Does the fact that the equipment was bolted down make a difference with insurance. I'd appreciate any opinions on this matter. Thank you.

Robert

 

[mykeys 10+ year member]

I can't say for your neck of the woods, but here in Washington the pawn shops are obligated to get the serial numbers off of whatever equipment they recieve and turn over a copy to the local PD. Been a lot of stolen stuff in the last couple of years and most of it was in the bigger cities.. Luckily for me and most of the people I know that have stereos are in smaller unincorporated towns. You might ask the local PD about something like that. It may not be a bad Idea to try and get a similar law passed with signatures from anyone who has ever had something stolen whether it be from their house or vehicle.. I never cought (sp?) the jerk that stole speakers out of my wifes car but I am pretty sure I know who was behind it.. She has had the screws put to her though.. Just not from me. That makes me happy but not content.

Mike

 

[mattj 5,000+ posts]

for future reference... if you get a DEI alarm on your vehicle... some of them offer coverage of up to 2500 dollars in theft from your vehicle.

 

[drkodin 10+ year member]

Originally posted by mr4pto Well actually my stuff WAS in fact bolted down to the vehicle. The amps were in a amplifier rack/box that was supposedly bolted to down underneith and my sub box was also supposedly bolted down underneith. I could probably ocnfirm this better when I see my car again or if I can locate my installer. One I had it installed he told me that everything was bolted to the vehicle. And in fact I mean you couldn't move the boxes at all. I mean they were permanent in there. The people who stole it must have literally ripped it out with a crow baror something. I have numerous picture of the installation as well. Does the fact that the equipment was bolted down make a difference with insurance. I'd appreciate any opinions on this matter. Thank you.

 

Robert

some insurance companies consider that if something is bolted to the frame of the car, it is an actual part of the car and is therefore covered under normal insurance.

 

[mr4pto 10+ year member]

Just to give a bit of an update . . . still battling the insurance beast to see what happens. GT Police are pretty much hopeless I am guessing . . . no word at all from them. I don't see anything up on ebay or anything and trying to search local pawn shops just seems like a little bit too complicated since I live in a major urban town. I am hoping insurance covers some if not all my stuff. Good news is Eclipse actually came through with their word and will supposedly ship me a new headunit in a few weeks if mine is not recovered . . . thats not too bad of a deal I'd say. More points for the best car cd player company out there.

In other news I have started to think about what I am going to put back in my car cause the thought of driving around with nothing is just painful. I am sure all the true car audio enthusiasts understand that. I am thinking about JL amps to power my hopefully still in shape door speakers and then probably more W7s. The amps seem really expensive. I was wondering opinions on the quality of those.

Also for my future outlook for security, I was wondering any recommendations on alarms. I know someone who does OEM clifford's for Car dealerships and he said he can get me into a pretty Clifford Alarm for a good deal. Do you guys like Clifford? If not any suggestions? Also would tinting my front windows be a good or bad idea? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks again for everyone's support. I really hope things work out with insurance so I can re-put in a comparable system.

Robert