Having a Car in Seattle?

[Seacove]

Someone broke into a 95 Neon? Were they trying to keep it at a misdemeanor?

[sekhmet1974]

Originally Posted by Seacove

Someone broke into a 95 Neon? Were they trying to keep it at a misdemeanor?

My point exactly! They do not discriminate!

[Inkpoe]

My friend's 94 Geo metro hatchback was broken into and the dash stripped. Of course, the cops hardly cared-- which was actually the more upsetting situation for my friend.

[415_s2k]

Oh god. My S2000 got broken into multiple times in Seattle. The first time, they cut the top, and stole the seats and the shift knob, up by my apartment on Roosevelt. A neighbor saw it but "didn't want to get involved" and didn't call the cops This was about $10k in damage.

Next, someone cut the top and tried to steal the replacements seats, but I'd locked them in place using bolts with an odd star-shaped allen key so they couldn't get them out... so the slashed them and keyed the driver's side fender. This was in the parking lot at Virginia Mason on First Hill, where I worked at the time. $4500.

The third time, they cut the top, went through the armrest, then opened the trunk and stole a pair of Doc Martens and a spare jacket I had in there, as well as a USB 32-key MIDI keyboard that was about ten years old. This was around the corner from the Cathedral on First Hill, where bums line up for free food. About $2k in damage. All in the span of a year...

The only cars that generally get properly stolen, in their entirety, are Hondas, Nissans, etc, either ones that were made before there were electonic keys, or ones that are tuned and have lots of parts that can be stripped and resold. No one is going to put the effort into trying to snag a BMW, MBZ, etc. because of all the security measures in them... however, they'll certainly be more than happy to get into the thing and try to steal anything of value or strip any aftermarket parts like stereos out and sell them on Craigslist (when my seats got stolen, they were up on Craigslist after less than 12 hours, and the cops wouldn't do anything about it).

The garages are better than nothing, but anyone savvy enough to shatter a window, hotwire a car, or put it on a flatbed and haul it out isn't going to be overwhelmingly deterred by an unsupervised garage (there was a rash of garage breakins in '09 on First Hill). Just make sure that you have good insurance with a low deductible!

[sekhmet1974]

Originally Posted by 415_s2k

Oh god. My S2000 got broken into multiple times in Seattle. The first time, they cut the top, and stole the seats and the shift knob, up by my apartment on Roosevelt. A neighbor saw it but "didn't want to get involved" and didn't call the cops This was about $10k in damage.

Next, someone cut the top and tried to steal the replacements seats, but I'd locked them in place using bolts with an odd star-shaped allen key so they couldn't get them out... so the slashed them and keyed the driver's side fender. This was in the parking lot at Virginia Mason on First Hill, where I worked at the time. $4500.

The third time, they cut the top, went through the armrest, then opened the trunk and stole a pair of Doc Martens and a spare jacket I had in there, as well as a USB 32-key MIDI keyboard that was about ten years old. This was around the corner from the Cathedral on First Hill, where bums line up for free food. About $2k in damage. All in the span of a year...

The only cars that generally get properly stolen, in their entirety, are Hondas, Nissans, etc, either ones that were made before there were electonic keys, or ones that are tuned and have lots of parts that can be stripped and resold. No one is going to put the effort into trying to snag a BMW, MBZ, etc. because of all the security measures in them... however, they'll certainly be more than happy to get into the thing and try to steal anything of value or strip any aftermarket parts like stereos out and sell them on Craigslist (when my seats got stolen, they were up on Craigslist after less than 12 hours, and the cops wouldn't do anything about it).

The garages are better than nothing, but anyone savvy enough to shatter a window, hotwire a car, or put it on a flatbed and haul it out isn't going to be overwhelmingly deterred by an unsupervised garage (there was a rash of garage breakins in '09 on First Hill). Just make sure that you have good insurance with a low deductible!

There is my question....your insurance didn't cover any of that?

Also, my Acura Integra had a built in manufactory security device in the steering wheel. Anyone who knows the cars should know that, yet thieves attempted to steal the car (breaking the steering wheel in the process. So just because the car is known to be secure doesn't mean they won't try. They are relentless in Seattle! I will add since I'm responding again, the break-ins of our cars occurred on the same street, but years apart (even though we had both cars at the time of the first). Meaning it likely wasn't the same person/people.

[Hemlock140]

there are two main reasons for this area having a high percentage of car breakins/thefts. First is the number of recent Russian immigrants that are in the chop shop business. Second is the lenient laws. Theft of a motor vehicle is a class B felony, and that only since 2007. Before that it took up to seven auto theft convictions before an offender faced prison time.


it will only get worse now, with recent budget cuts:

Local News | Budget forces State Patrol to eliminate auto-theft unit | Seattle Times Newspaper

[Seacove]

I know there are a ton of Russian immigrants in this area but I didn't know anything about them in the chop shop business.

The insurance did pay our $10K claim but a few months later they actually pulled all their business out of Washington state.

[415_s2k]

Originally Posted by sekhmet1974

There is my question....your insurance didn't cover any of that?

Insurance covered all of it, but each time I was out $500 for my deductible. I got aftermarket tops each time to make up for this (OEM top was like $1500 or something like that; I got tops that were $400-500). When it came time for yearly renewal, they dropped me

[415_s2k]

Originally Posted by bisjoe

there are two main reasons for this area having a high percentage of car breakins/thefts. First is the number of recent Russian immigrants that are in the chop shop business. Second is the lenient laws. Theft of a motor vehicle is a class B felony, and that only since 2007. Before that it took up to seven auto theft convictions before an offender faced prison time.


it will only get worse now, with recent budget cuts:

Local News | Budget forces State Patrol to eliminate auto-theft unit | Seattle Times Newspaper

A lot of the car theft rings in the Seattle area are Vietnamese (the kids who stole my seats, for example). Hell, when I was up there and dating a Vietnamese girl, I mentioned this, and she said, "that's not true! ...well, my little brother has gotten arrested two times for boosting Hondas with our cousins."