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In between finishing work last night and this morning, some scumbag has stolen two bits of plastic moulding off the side of my van. The larger moulding, near the rear wheel, was really scratched from a disagreement with a wall, so not even in good condition!
It's a 2014 Vivaro, nothing fancy. These parts retail for £70-80 new, hardly seems worth it... Just annoying and money I don't have to spare at the moment.
My colleague had his catalytic converter stolen a few weeks ago. This was very expensive to rectify, apparently there are precious metals in them. How do these people live with themselves?
Has this or similar happened to anybody else?
I had the spare wheel taken off my T5 Kombi. It sits under the rear of the van and accessible to anyone. Only realised when I took it in for a service (it's now the first thing they check).
Its replacement now has a lockable nut and the reg number sprayed over it.
Years ago, someone nicked the door mirror off my Cavalier. Got a new one (not cheap), a week later the cheeky bastards not only stole that one but had the brass neck to replace it with my old one.
...goes off to check spare wheel is still under van...
The plastic parts on the Vivaro are notorious for falling off. The plastic clips that hold them are shocking. Are you sure that they haven't fallen off? (if it has been parked on your drive ignore this comment!)
Mind you someones else might have fallen off and they helped themselves to yours!
Steering wheels are also common to go.
Some bugger knicked the little plastic cap that goes over the 'emergency' key socket on my door handle.
Replacement was about £15 and then I had to paint it body coloured.
I just don't get some folk.
This is why I'd never buy a posh vehicle, even if I could afford it.
I couldn't believe what a ball ache it was to replace a transit mirror body, then I priced one up. They're obviously a regular item to get smashed to ****ery so an easy quick sale. Car/van breaking is big business as people are keeping vehicles on the road for longer.
Another regular item you see "missing" is the cover cap for the screw in towing eyes. Folk take it off, chuck it in the boot then lose it.
Don’t park at a music festival in a high end anything or a land rover you’ll come back to a near empty shell.
How do these people live with themselves?
Thieves are thieves. Criminals are criminals. That is their way of life.
Has this or similar happened to anybody else?
My car is too old to worth anything for anyone to steal, however this does not prevent people from kicking or punching it when they are drunk. My car has many dents because I parked (legally) near the pathway for drunks.
I just don’t get some folk.
It's probably because
Replacement was about £15 and then I had to paint it body coloured.
Despite constantly leaving it unlocked by accident.
The inconsiderate arseholes still haven't stolen the bloody thing
Someone nicked my front towing eye cover a couple of years ago. Will be about £60 for a replacement colour matched with the car from the manufacturer, second hand via eBay is about £45 and I gave up ringing round scrap yards after about ten minutes. I still haven't replaced it.
Is this nicking of cats (the non furry variety) an actual thing then?
I saw a story the other day especially highlighting my vehicle as a target (hybrid) but just assumed it was a typical slow news day
Not quite sure what I could do about it anyway
A few years ago some likely lads got hold of the MB Dealer list for sprinters supplied from Southampton
For the next year or so the dealers were supplying new cats on a weekly basis
We got done twice at the brewery till I got the studs welded on, they did it 6 months apart so knew you had to have fitted a new one
They contain platinum so worth a few quid
New ones were over £1000
Someone nicked my front towing eye cover a couple of years ago. Will be about £60 for a replacement colour matched with the car from the manufacturer, second hand via eBay is about £45 and I gave up ringing round scrap yards after about ten minutes. I still haven’t replaced it.
I noticed my front tow hook cover missing the other week, I figured it'd dropped off but it was mentioned it might have been nicked. very odd..!
Is this nicking of cats (the non furry variety) an actual thing then?
Yes,it's been happening for years.
If the price of petrol/Diesel shoots up in the near future people will find the scumbags have been drilling them for the fuel.
Mates wife had the spare wheel stolen on her Discovery the other year.Survived being parked in Liverpool on a daily basis for over a year,the wheel got stolen within a few weeks of her parking it in Manchester.
Years back I had the Crooklock stolen on my car,they left the car,just stole the lock...
I had the spare wheel taken off my T5 Kombi. It sits under the rear of the van and accessible to anyone. Only realised when I took it in for a service (it’s now the first thing they check).
Same here but on a Citroen Berlingo.
Only realised when the wire frame thing that holds it on came loose over a speed hump and dragged along the road.
Got a locking bolt for it after that.
Managed to get an 07 plate fiesta ST as a little fun run around a couple of years ago. Decent condition. Had all 4 centre caps from alloys nicked twice. 2nd time after gorilla taping them in.
Indicator covers, jack baffles in skirting, reflector mouldings on rear, moulding on rear and front bumper were all taken over course of 12 months. Sold it on to a enthusiast and said it was standard. Around 25 quid each to replace each bit. ST badges gone straight away too
Someone put a dent in my door at FoD at the weekend.
It's not detracted from it's resale value in the slightest.
Last month neighbour had their relatively new BMW 3 series convertible broken into. Steering wheel and iDrive system stolen. Car was written off.
They didn't touch my van or my 7 year old Kia.
When i had a Mk 4 golf GTI, the glass was nicked out the passenger door/wing mirror, I did think somehow the mirror which I'd left folded in had been clipped by a passing car and the glass dislodged, but no it was nicked.
A replacement glass is all of £9 on ebay, which I'm sure I cracked fitting so had to purchase a replacement for the replacement.
My mate had his Cat nicked whilst it was parked in a festival car park.
Its a common occurrence.
Creamfileds this August
Merc van dealer near me had a whole storage yard of Sprinters cats pinched one weekend a few years back. Lots of unhappy customers.
Years ago, someone nicked the door mirror off my Cavalier. Got a new one (not cheap), a week later the cheeky bastards not only stole that one but had the brass neck to replace it with my old one.
Amazing. 😀
I had the number plates lifted off my ten year old Corsa, nowt else worth nicking...
Toyota UK reported the other day that theft of cats has gone up by 2000% recently as the value of the metals inside them has jumped. Hybrids tend to have cleaner cats and there are more of them about so they have been targeted the most.
Survived being parked in Liverpool on a daily basis for over a year,the wheel got stolen within a few weeks of her parking it in Manchester.
That reminds me:
Years ago, parked up in Liverpool, my mum's boss had the posh alloy wheels stolen from his car. He came back to find it up on bricks.
He went to ring the police (this was before mobile phones were prevalent), when he came back to it afterwards it was sitting on its hubs as someone had stolen the bricks.
I know it's wrong, but I lolled at that rangerover up there. 😂
Someone nicked a brakelever off my Rockhopper - it was a fancy V brake shimano job, just one. Left the cable neatly wrapped around the bar.
The wifes bike had its air cap on the fox fork stolen whilst we were having lunch at FOD.
Back when I was a mechanic there was a truck dealer somewhere in East Anglia which got targeted over a Bank Holiday weekend.
They broke in to the yard and nicked the wheels off all the brand new motors that were there. They even went to the extent of taking the ones off the trucks that were parked up beside the fence, but only on the side away from the fence! I can't remember the exact numebr they took but it was a pretty large amount and cost them a fortune to replace the wheels and tyres!
Another one in North London I got called to a customers yard as their Sprinter had an oil leak. There was a big pool of oil under it so I popped the bonnet for a look. turns out someone had nicked the turbo while it was parked up over the weekend. Not an easy job at the best of times. While I was sorting that they went to get in their other delivery van and asked me to have a quick look as the steering wheel wasnt right. Turned out that they'd nicked the steering rack off the other van! Pretty impressive work as they're a pig to change even in a fully equipped workshop 😀
I had the coloured covers for both wing mirrors stolen off a Mondeo....while it was in the main dealers for a service.
The dealership took them off my car and put them on a used car that was going out for sale to another customer and after initially denying it the cheeky b'stards eventually fessed up and ordered me new ones
Both door mirrors from a mates Audi S3, happened on 2 occasions and cost about £1000 each time!
Had all 4 alloys nicked off my car a few years back, heard the tilt sensor alarm go off in the early hours only to see them driving off (front had dropped on it's discs as they'd panicked I guess). Apparently there'd been a break in to the local dealership a few weeks before and a subsequent spate of thefts as they'd stolen the master locking wheel nuts.
All sorted fine on the insurance thankfully
Same here but on a Citroen Berlingo.
Only realised when the wire frame thing that holds it on came loose over a speed hump and dragged along the road.
Same here but with a Pug Partner - now carry the spare wheel strapped down inside the vehicle, which is a bit of a pain ...
Bonnet stolen from my Landover Defender a few years back
Police didn't want to investigate further , the Insurance company were suspicious and completed an investigation to confirm it was a legitimate theft.
Sold the Defender shortly afterwards.....
Years ago, parked up in Liverpool, my mum’s boss had the posh alloy wheels stolen from his car. He came back to find it up on bricks.
He went to ring the police (this was before mobile phones were prevalent), when he came back to it afterwards it was sitting on its hubs as someone had stolen the bricks.
I came out of Durham ice rink after a hockey game one Sunday night & the Cobra alloys off my Mk V Cortina were gone. The scrotes hadn't even bothered with bricks.
I came off the South Gare pier at Redcar after a fishing session, saw my Passat & thought, 'champion, it hasn't been burned out & the wheels are still on'.
It wa only when I was reversing out that I noticed some shitbag had nicked the drivers door mirror glass. Just the glass!
One of the local smack heads nicked the battery out of our mk1 micra years ago. I glued his locks & popped dog poo through his letterbox for a while once I'd found out who'd done it. He was disease riddled, so I didn't risk giving him a kicking.
Last year my mum's 2-month old Clio lost pretty much all of the front bumper and surrounding plastics outside her house one night. Carefully dismounted with all the bolts left lying around. It must have been just the right colour for someone.
She's parked it in the garage every night since..
We had the glass nicked out of the wing mirror of our Focus years ago. Just one side, just the glass. They were heated mirrors so fairly costly to replace.
At around the same time a guy where I worked had the headlamp unit nicked off his Range Rover. Apparently they pop off very easily, and being high-output lights got reused for indoor horticultural projects. It became a recurring theme, the sound of a Range Rover alarm, accompanied by the screeching of some shitebox being driven away at speed. Eventually he wised up and started parking right up against the wall of a morning.
Thinking about it, it was this same area where we woke up one morning to find out front door handle had been nicked, apparently for the scrap value of it.
Looking back, it was quite a dodgy place to live.
Years ago, someone nicked the door mirror off my Cavalier. Got a new one (not cheap), a week later the cheeky bastards not only stole that one but had the brass neck to replace it with my old one.
This is the sort of skullduggery you have to almost admire. Cheeky blighters. Made me chuckle after a crap day.
Yes, as someone has already said, this has been going on for years. In the early 1980’s my sis was a nurse at Dudley Road hospital in Birmingham. She used to have to commute in her nice Mk2 Ford Escort. Thieving c**ts used to regularly rob parts from cars in the staff car parks. Over a couple of years my sis had loads of parts pinched off the car - usual stuff, hub caps, aerials, mirrors. Worst was when she came out from working a late and the fu**ers had got in and stolen the entire dashboard!
After a spell of unemployment, I got that desperate that I also got a job at the hospital - I thought I’d be ok leaving my crappy old Cortina there, but they had the headlights off it, then a few weeks later, the indicators. I couldn’t get over how people would pinch parts off hospital worker cars - but it seems to go hand in hand with the state of the general economy, and chance of getting caught.
Why on earth the government can’t afford to fund a fully staffed police force when we live in the fifth richest nation in the world is beyond me - maybe if all the tax dodging sh*tes paid their fair share eh?!
Kat thefts...are crazy ..had someone cut a kat out of a car at work ..S***S cost us £1000 on the entire exhaust needed replaced as it was cut at the flexy and back box with no room for welds...and we had mirrors..a wheel..and centre caps(like seriously)..and all sorts over the years ...found out about the kat by starting the car and being like **** THATS LOAD!!! SONETHINGS SERIOUSLY WRONG ..looked underneath like you F**G BASTARDS..even saw the angle grinder Mark's.. it was clearly cut..
Here's one I just remembered.
I knew a farmer who had a Bedford TK cattle truck which was kept in a barn. He went to it one morning to load it up to go to market with some coos but It wouldn't turn over & he thought the battery was flat, so he went to the battery cover & noticed something missing.
The whole engine. (& gearbox)
Managed to get an 07 plate fiesta ST as a little fun run around a couple of years ago. Decent condition. Had all 4 centre caps from alloys nicked twice. 2nd time after gorilla taping them in.
Indicator covers, jack baffles in skirting, reflector mouldings on rear, moulding on rear and front bumper were all taken over course of 12 months. Sold it on to a enthusiast and said it was standard. Around 25 quid each to replace each bit. ST badges gone straight away too
Somewhere there’s a bog standard Fiesta masquerading as an ST...
My dad's mate parked his pristine 1250 mk2 mini at Heathrow. On the way home, it felt sluggish. He got home & checked under the bonnet. Some buggered swapped the 1250 engine for a 1000 😬
My dad’s mate parked his pristine 1250 mk2 mini at Heathrow. On the way home, it felt sluggish. He got home & checked under the bonnet. Some buggered swapped the 1250 engine for a 1000 😬
the good old days, when criminals were gentlemen who would install the engine correctly so it functioned. I bet they washed it and gave it a service too.
I knew a farmer...
Farms are fair game, my old man had a digger parked in his field for a bit, when the owner came to collect it they found the brand new batteries (which seemingly need two folk to lift) and fuel were gone. Apparently someone else got done over in a similar fashion but the scumbags swapped the fuel for expanding foam.