Car Stereo Stolen!!!

[MJinAustin]

Originally Posted by TheDailyCompulsion

Yeah, I totally understand that, but really how much money can you get for a used and obviously stolen car stereo???

I have spoken to several people about this and there are all kinds of different speculations as to who would do this kind of thing. Some people say it's young punks doing it more for the thrill than for the money, and other people think it's a highly organized crime ring doing it to finance other crimes. Some people say it's just crazy crackheads who need money for drugs and don't care about the risk. Either way, it's gotta be someone with balls or someone crazy to go up and down the street breaking into cars.

I live near 183 and Oak Knoll. Our neighborhood has an active yahoo group and we've been discussing this a lot because lots of cars have been broken into in our neighborhood. The police and residents have been working together and have discovered that most of the break ins are done on cars that are left unlocked (though some have had locks broken) and that it happens between 1 and 5am and the police have mostly caught illegals or illegals' children (teens). ---Please don't start flaming me re: blaming illegals...this has been the info that the police have gathered and shared w/ the neighborhood.--- It appears that locked alarmed cars have deterred this particular group as they are just looking for a quick and easy pick. They basically go up and down the streets and try all the door handles (police matched fingerprints to many cars on a street where there were about 3 break ins)...if the car is open, they rifle it. Parking under a street lamp or in a driveway doesn't deter them. Best way to avoid it is to alarm and lock your car or park in the garage.

[lucy05]

Yeah we live right in between McNeil and Anderson Mill, Pond Springs area.....2 weeks ago today my husbands car was broken into also. They got our laptop, 15" speaker, the deck, amp and his backpack. $4,000 in items! I think the crackheads from Runberg are moving to this part of town. I've called a few pawn shops and no luck so far. The police did get a good set of prints though so hopefully they will find these bastards.

[CptnRn]

I have spend some time recently studying the crime statistics in Austin. The most common crime of burglary is burglary of vehicles. The biggest increases in burglaries of vehicles has been in parking lots outside of health clubs, big box stores like Costco, and apartment buildings. But there are significant strings of burglaries in residential areas where several will occur at once along a given street or two.

[nomore07]

Thefts seem to have gone up considerably in the last 3-4 years. I had two car radios and a bike stolen. Each were stolen at different times. Nothing fancy either! They were locked up too.

I don't bother with fancy radios anymore. I leave the bulky, unremovable stock one in there and use one of these gadgets instead.

DealExtreme: $11.79 Full Range Car USB/SD FM Transmitter MP3 Player with LCD Status and IR Remote Controller