I live in Astoria,NY (Queens) and am now a victim like all the others. The cops say they think it's amatuer work because they popped the driver door handle (also scratching the door) and was able to open the hood from the inside. They said the pros just use a tool and go through the grill and play with the cable attaching to the hood latch to get the hood open (less time needed). Both passenger and drivers side windows were wide open (not broken)when i woke up in the morning.

I installed the tamper proof bolts that TimW is selling. They worked great because they are still in tact, but they bypassed the bolts and just cut the plastic pieces that attach the the housing. Tore the plastic pieces up! It must have taken them at least a few minutes to do that. Unfortunatley, it been so hot over here and my A/C has been on at night and I couldn't hear an alarm even if it did go off. My driveway slopes down towards the house and for some reason these punks put down the ebrake and the car moved backwards into some garbage pails. I haven't moved the car yet because the claims person from my insurance company is stopping by to look at it so i don't know the damage yet. I can't even understand why they would do this or what they were attempting.

Cops say that another person up the block from me had theirs stolen as well last night. Sounds like the same people. They are sending over a team to do finger printing. I park in a driveway in front of my house which is enclosed by gates. Time to look for a garage.

 

Time to get a dog.

 

I have 2! Thye did no good

 

damn bro, sorry to hear that....and to think, i live only a few minutes away from you. i don't have a garage, buy my driveway is gated and i park behind my house. we just added barbed wire along the back and side fences. you would think this is a penitentiary, but then again, you dont' know how serious me and my father take personal theft. last time someone mugged my mom and the dumbass ran down our block. was in the hospital for a month...but hey, that was self defense.

sorry to hear about it. the dealer told me i'd be back when mine get stolen, but i told they wouldn't. now you gettin me nervous.

 

Hmmmm. They must have been sleeping on the job.

Of course, if they are anything like my little yappers, they bark at everything and I ignore them.

Sorry you got ripped off.

 

Man that sucks! Hopefully they will catch the punks. I was trying to decide whether or not to get an aftermarket alarm. This just made my decision for me and I'm going to get the loudest siren I can find to put under the hood!

I have TimW's bolts too. I guess the only thing that would make them better would be to have some sort of metal bracket that goes over the plastic pieces so they cant be cut as easily.

 

Sorry to hear about this BS! Personal theft is an aggravation and it sucks to hear stories like this...

Good luck with the Insurance Company!

DL

 

Suds, your right. I'm supposed to go into service on Thursday. I'm going to talk to the manager and see if they have any plans on upgrading the plastic piece. You work hard for your money and you can't own anything nice. ****es me off!

 

I hear that!

My mom had a basset hound(cute, but worthless!) who was sleeping DIRECTLY infront of the door a burglar came through/exited. The guy must have stepped over the damn dog to get into the house, yet the dog never woke up.



In your situation, the thief probably rolled the car backwards to get the car as far away from the house as possible, so you wouldn't hear the alarm.

I think you NY guys need to set up a sting operation to get some revenge on these punks.

 

Thats a pretty good idea. What would be great is if someone could figure our a way to attach some electric current (say 100,000 volts or so ) to the HID bolts and then set it out in the wide open somewhere and wait on a crook to come along!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by IceY2K1
[B]


I hear that!

My mom had a basset hound(cute, but worthless!) who was sleeping DIRECTLY infront of the door a burglar came through/exited. The guy must have stepped over the damn dog to get into the house, yet the dog never woke up.

Bassett hounds and Beagles are the cutest dogs, but dumb as a doorknob. If they are comfortable, forget about them moving. I usually get a "you've got to be out of your f***ing mind" look from my beagle when i try to move her. I was thinking of maybe setting up a camera on my driveway. If it's too expensive maybe a fake one just to give second thoughts.

 

Damn, this is bad!!! Sorry about it dude! I live in Long Island but I work in Queens and I'm very conscious about where I park. As a matter of fact, If I do take my car to Queens I always park in a secured garage. Only thing I can see that you could have done differently would be to park front in right up against the garage so they have a hell of a time getting to the lights.
They stole them even with the bracket too!!! You sure they did'nt disconnect the horn after they popped the hood?
Anyway... good luck. Insurance should take careof it!

Deac

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SupaFly
[B]A fake camera and motion activated flood lights might help, but a ROTWEILER(sp?) chained to the bumper may work better.

If you upgrade to Hella Air Horns you might be able to wake the Beagle or at least **** off the neighbor enough to come outside and end up scaring off the theives.

If I lived in NY, I would have an aftermarket alarm PAGING system, otherwise drive a cheap POS.

Good luck!

 

Thank you everyone for making me laugh. I needed it

 

If you had told me five years ago that headlight theft would start raging rampant in New York City, I would have laughed in your face until I passed out.

Good luck with insurance. My sister just moved to Staten Island, I suppose it is a good thing she drives a Honduh.

 

sorry to hear that. Well, they've been tested and althought they obviously slow them down alot and they didnt get a complete assembly, I feared they would still destroy the housing (given enough time).

Curious, did they *try* to get the bolts off? any scratches around them?

 

this is sickening to mention.. but you realize those tabs that are left can be used to match and prosecute should your housings show up somewhere. You might want to hang on to those.

 

My father owns the Best Yet store on 37th in Astoria and When i work there i am worried someone is gonna steal my lights just because its a Max not even a 2k2.

 

As I said many of time...RAZOR WIRE AROUND THE HARNESS AND THE BOLTS!!!

 

it may be ugly but you NYC peeps may want to put some stickers on your windows about the lights needing to be destroyed to be removed.

 

Hey Tim, there were no scratches around the bolts. They didn't even bother. Like i said before, you gave full warning that it only lengthens the time spent to take them out so i trust the bolts work. I was able to get all 4 nuts on also. If only Nissan would make a steel bracket and it would help if the cable to the latch of the hood wasn't so easily accessable through the grill.

 

Maybe you guys can try to retrofit a BMW sensor latch into your cars. I have a sensor latch on my car that is hooked up to my alarm, if the hood is popped, then the alarm goes off. Or mabe even the wiring harness of the HID units. If I ever come to any of the Maxima meets and Vice Versa, then you guys can take a look at what I'm talking about. Also, you can try to hook up your alarm not to the little siren only, but to your factory horn. I walked by a truck that had done that and it was loud as hell, plus very annoying. On a side note, once when my friends and I were in Chinatown, my alarm had acted up and the car wouldn't start. The siren kept going off and we were all inside and out the car trying to shut it off. I swear that we looked like we were stealing the car and yet, no one cared. Even the cops walked by and did nothing. Just goes to show you how people in NY are used to car alarms going off. Finaly I had to cut the wires because I had 3 sirens hooked to alarm (which is the reason the alarm acted up) and reset the battery. I'm sorry to hear about your loss. Hope you get some payback.

 

Damn, Im happy I moved out of Queens.. I have seen this happen to people that didnt even have HID's... All I can tell you is no matter how many bolts, latches, or Razor wire.. (LOL) you use, if they want it , they will get it. Garaging your car isnt fool proof. My neighbor in Hollis got his car stolen right out of the GARAGE ! Just check the For Sale Forum, and Ebay, that seems to be where these scum bags list this stuff all the time..

 

And a handgun...

Buzz

 

I left queens as well, what a pit its become. My parents have had 5 cars stolen.

For the hood you can get a chaplan lock that has an armored cable to the hood and opens with a key. In this way they cant open the hood.

Be careful with the razor wire, I had a friend that put razor blades behind the radio when radio thefts were the thing. Theif did get cut and got ****ed. All the seats were razored back and all the windows smashed, keyed, etc...

 

Has anyone noticed that there is not one person on ebay selling the HID's anymore? Just one month ago there were at least a few.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dlicari
[B]Sorry to hear about this BS! Personal theft is an aggravation and it sucks to hear stories like this...

No doubt!!!!

 

do you have an alarm in the car?? if you do consider getting a mercury switch for the hood, once the hood is opened less then 2degrees the alarm will go off. Also DEI makes a sensor called the 508D, its a proximity sensor, it will trigger the alarm if anyone comes near your car for more than 30sec.

I installed these once my 18's and DVD player was stolen a few months back right off my own driveway!!!

Ant

 

A shotgun and motion-sensing floodlights to illuminate the "target area".

 

i like the sting operation idea

Setup a car ourselves....video cam them in the act....and then pop outta the bushes and beat their asses...then take their headlights just for fun

 

Your a sick puppy! But I like how you think!

 

ME TOO

 

I just luv the way you think. "Beat the beaters!"

Buzz

 

I just found out the cost of the lights. It's amazing..$700 per light, $900 per harness. A total of $3200 just for all the necessary parts to replace.

I can't beleive the harness is more than the assembly. Damage to the car was $2200 between the door and front bumper being painted and replacing the door handle and mechanism.

 

OMFG!!!! are you serious?? Isn't people seeling them for like $1200.00/pair? GOOD LUCK BRO

 

That SUCKS!!!!

 

This was a quote from Koeppel Nissan in Queens,NY

 

I mean.. I *guess* its good they want to replace the harness :/ instead of just splicing on $30 connectors.

 

they should seriously do this... or at least have the cops do it.

 

What a small world. I live in Hartford now but I grew up in Queens. When I lived there in '95-'00 I had many attempts at my car AND home. The best thing to do is to set up a security system that wards off would-be theives from even trying to work your property.

1) A garage is the best thing for your car. If you don't have a garage, setup flood lights that illuminate from different sides of your car. I personally invested over a grand in a home surveillance system. I had two cameras aimed at my car 24. One camera was mounted directly in front of the my car (a Mercedes S500 at the time) in a non-operating mock floodlight. The other camera was hidden in the shrubs surrounding the car. I also setup a homemade trip sensor ala Radioshack built into and hidden in my gate.

Algother 8 camera s around the house, two setup at every corner excluding the two around the car. Loads of motion sensors around every area of the house and radioshack gizmos that light up a path to my front door. Installed a Viper on my car with remote pager. Relaced the ****ty horn that came with the system for some industrial strength Mactruck foghorns rated at over 100dB. Instead of mounting the horn where theives could easily access it, I mounted in alongside the frame rale at the bottom.

Back in '96 one of my neighbors was shot and killed in a home invasion blunder. I'm a firm believer in peace and diplomacy, but diplomacy isn't going to save your life when men with guns break into your house in the middle of the night. So now I have a Mossberg 12ga with slugs and 10mm doing all the talking for me.

My security system was so tight even flies couldn't get in. Tony Montana would've been proud. BUT STILL I had half a dozen attempts on my property. All but one thief was deterred. One guy tried my car but I caught him on tape and scared him away with by introducing him to "my little friend." They guy tried to disable my ebrake. Turns out the guy live two blocks down and worked at the tower's. Presented the evidence to the cops and the guy was later busted. He's probably made some intimate cellmates at Sing Sing.