Since there doesn't appear to be a thread to list HID thefts here's my encounter.

My brand new '03 SE was parked on the street for the first night in Bronx, NY. 3:00am the cops show up at my door with the news. Luckily a neighbor was getting ready to go to work and looked out the window. She saw a suspicious van double parked and called 911. Cops showed up as the van pulled away. It was a total of a 2 minute job. Police chased them in Manhattan and got them.

Here's what they did. They broke the right rear window and then popped the hood from inside. The battery lead was cut, and they very cleanly removed the bolts and the HIDs. Not a scrath anywhere. The officers had told me that a year ago there was a local gang ripping the HIDs off the Acuras. They had since caught them and the problem subsided. It just recently reappeared with the Maximas since they are much easier to steal. Our luck...

A nearby doorman said he didn't even hear the Nissan car alarm go off. Time to get a Viper alarm.

Now my question is whether to re-insert the same HIDs or swap them for the non-Xenon's.

Hopefully others will be as luck as I am (this time).

 

Lucky!

What did the officers end up doing with the people who stole your lights?

Lucky!

 

Daaaaaammmmm! You should go play the lottery. I hope you press charges. Maybe we need to go back to the old hood lock setup.
You know were this cable came inside to under the dash and locked the hood with a key. (I think Chapman alrm company use to make it) not that I am showing my age or anything.

 

NY is getting hammered.

It sucks because this is all to feed the ricer crowd so they can put these in their civics and what ever.


persoanlly, I'd put 'em back in and get the viper alarm. I could be wrong on this, but I would think it's a target, they may not be able to dicern between halogen and HIDs, they may just know it's the year of car with HIDs. Then when they get in and find halogens they'll take it out on the body work.

 

Well. It turns out they were both out on probation for drug posession charges. So, they're heading back to Riker's to finish serve a year for the posession charges. Then they'll begin serving time/if any for these charges.

The DA's office will be pressing charges for criminal mishief (broken window) and theft. One of them had $1k in cash on him which is now in police custody. Hopefully i can get my hands on some of it for restitution. The DA's office is treating this with high priority because of the high theft rate of the HIDs and low conviction rate. Grand Jury will meet on Monday.

So, these guys will be heading home to their cells for a nice bit of time. I must say, it was pretty rewarding seeing them behind bars.

I've been in contact with Don (Pearl96Max) about an alarm system. I'm definitely considering a mechanical hood lock. In addition to Chapman, Maxiguard (http://www.thebettersource.com/servl....jsp&prod=1035) has nother product.

I also noticed that DEI has an accessory (DEI 565T). Anyone know anything about it?

 

dont let some fools ruin your nighttime vision because you dont want to put your xenons back in. dont replace them.

 

wow u got very very lucky.......

 

wow, if you had the TimW bolts, they may not have gotten them! Every little bit of security helps!

 

I was thinking about that. I've already been in touch with him about getting them. Although, my other thought was if I had the bolts they may have cut around them thus ruining the headlamps. I'm torn about using them.

I think the ultimate fix would be some sort of reinforced hardened steel the would slip over the plastic tabs. Using something like that in combination with the bolts would be a really good solution.

So who has some connections with metal workers that can rig something together??