So I'm looking for some general opinions on what I should do regarding a recent situation I've gotten into. Apparently last night, an organized car theft group broke into my building's garage and stole a bunch of car parts. Lucky me, they broke into my 2009 Honda Accord, drove it an another resident's Acura down to a nice, isolated corner on the lowest level and decided to strip out parts. Amongst other things, they stole my radiator, fenders, spare tire, air bags, ignition, and front headlights (a total of seven cars were hit with damage varying from stolen airbags to stolen doors, though the Acura owner and I were the only lucky ones to get the full treatment). Here are some pictures for your entertainment:





For the record: 2009 Honda Accord LX-P with about 5,500 miles on it.

I'm still waiting to get a final assessment from my insurance company, but my question is this: is it even worth trying to repair this vehicle or would I be better off going and buying a new one? I know there's no way I can get this thing restored to where it once was, but would whatever rebuild be worth the large sums of money required or would I be better off taking said large sums of cash to buy another vehicle? If I decide to repair it, what would I need to consider and be aware of? Not sure if they'll declare it totaled or not given the threshold is pretty high since the vehicle was brand new. Again, any advice would be appreciated.

[Edited on June 19, 2009 at 12:05 AM. Reason : photo links... think I got them this time...]

6/19/2009 12:02:28 AM

you probably aren't lucky enough to have the car totaled unfortunately

where do you live that they have enough time to strip 7 cars with 2 of them being to the extent that yours was

at least they didn't steal that sweet seat cover - on a random guess are you indian or asian?

6/19/2009 12:05:12 AM

it's not really up to you, it's your insurance company's decision. however, if it is considered repairable, you can pursue compensation for the substantial loss in value incurred. i can't see the pics, but from the description it doesn't sounds like nearly enough to be a total loss.

[Edited on June 19, 2009 at 12:11 AM. Reason : i see them now... haha, damn that's the work of some pretty top notch theives]

6/19/2009 12:09:35 AM

Apparently there's a ring in DC metro that's been hitting apartments and condos for Hondas and Acuras. Local cops think it probably took them just 30 minutes to an hour max.

6/19/2009 12:21:23 AM

Well, I guess I ask because if they give me money for repairs, don't I have the option to just take the repair money? Just wondering if there would be the point where its not worth doing repairs anymore: 5k, 8k, 10k, 12k?

6/19/2009 12:25:28 AM

It's probably going to be less than your lowest number of $5k. Just get the thing fixed and hope you can get some money for loss of value. I don't think you can get it from a claim against your own insurance though.

6/19/2009 12:50:43 AM

Sorry to hear about your car. Sounds like you have good insurance though. This would piss me off so much...

6/19/2009 3:10:07 AM

man, that sucks something fierce

6/19/2009 7:51:38 AM

10mm wrench can do wonders

6/19/2009 8:03:59 AM

Quote :

"It's probably going to be less than your lowest number of $5k. Just get the thing fixed and hope you can get some money for loss of value. I don't think you can get it from a claim against your own insurance though."

Do you really think so? I was being told that buying replacement air bags alone run for around $1500 a pop. Between those, the radiator, the hood and fenders, I thought I would easily move beyond at least the $5k number.

6/19/2009 8:21:03 AM

Ahh...I was thinking airbag, not airbags and you didn't mention the hood in your original post. Either way, it's not going to be worth your while to sell the car as non-running/stripped. Your best bet is still to get it fixed back to the way it was and try to forget this happened.

If you can avoid getting the title stamped as a "theft recovery" or whatever they call it in DC you'll be much better off when you go to sell the car though.

[Edited on June 19, 2009 at 8:47 AM. Reason : l]

6/19/2009 8:45:16 AM

It was more than a couple guys working on this, thats for sure. Also I would be willing to bet, thats more than $5k worth of damage after buying factory replacement parts and getting OEM quality paint job.



Dont just take it to any old body shop and let them source the parts through a salvage yard, you will probably end up buying your original airbags back.

Sort of related -I have heard of cases in Russia and Korea of "car pirates" breaking into high end cars and stealing the ECM or the Body control module, then holding it for ransom. YARRR

6/19/2009 11:22:12 AM

On that new a car, I highly doubt it's totaled, even counting new airbags and a repaint. I think lots of insurance companies use > 66% of value as totaled or something like that, so you'd probably need way over 10K in damage to total. Also, since this is the work of pros, it looks like there isn't a lot of collateral damage and they didn't fuck things up just to piss you off, so once it is repaired the car will probably be in closer to "new" condition than it would be after an accident. Do be sure to inquire with your insurance about compensation for loss of value, especially if the title gets branded theft recovery.

Still, that sucks though. I would be all kinds of pissed.

6/19/2009 11:28:39 AM

If he hasnt already called his insurance company....the thieves might come back again and do EVEN MORE damage to the car, causing it to be totaled...

6/19/2009 11:46:35 AM

Jack it up and take the tires and rims off


WTF were they driving, a UHaul? Do they have security cams at your apartment? I lived in a high rise in LA a couple years back that had underground parking, four guys broke the window of a Ferrari and winched it into the back of a moving truck (custom rig). They had it secured within two minutes but got caught cuz one of the dude's dropped his cell phone and left it

[Edited on June 19, 2009 at 11:54 AM. Reason : Damn, beat me to it.....]

6/19/2009 11:48:46 AM

Quote :

"On that new a car, I highly doubt it's totaled, even counting new airbags and a repaint."

I should add its definitely not totalled.

6/19/2009 12:06:24 PM

Quote :

"WTF were they driving, a UHaul?"

Dodge Caravan actually. If you look in the first photo, you can see the seats they left behind when they threw them out of the minivan. Cops speculated it was a large team, probably 10 to 20 people who staked the building before.

Yeah, I figured I wouldn't reach the "totaled" level just because of the age of the car. That doesn't mean I won't try and push for it, but we'll see. I'll keep an eye on the "theft recovery" part; I don't know what conditions are required for that since they didn't really steal the entire car... just (many) pieces of it.

Quote :

"Jack it up and take the tires and rims off "

Kind of funny, but it looks like they actually tried to. They took the wheel lock kit out of my trunk and apparently took a crack at it; the intention was there because they took tires off the Acura. However, I don't know if they ran out of time, got spooked, got frustrated trying to take them off (which I doubt given their skill), or didn't realize they were rims instead of regular tires 'cause they didn't take a single tire.

6/19/2009 4:16:27 PM

Kind of morbid humor, but perhaps this is divine punishment for leaving the Toyota family after ten years of loyalty for a Honda. Or maybe a Toyota sponsored crew hunting down defectors...

6/19/2009 4:18:32 PM

haha I was wondering wtf that seat was there for

6/19/2009 4:56:29 PM

Quote :

"I don't know what conditions are required for that since they didn't really steal the entire car..."

If they started and moved the car, it was stolen

6/19/2009 5:14:23 PM

How can they start/move a new car, I'm sure it has some sort of a chip for anti-theft, didn't think it was trivial to bypass that.

BTW, I find it amazing this happened, and thanks a lot for posting the pictures. Very interesting to me...

6/19/2009 6:58:02 PM

^there's nothing that's totally secure with the right equipment/knowledge. that said, they may not have even started it. very possible they just broke the column lock, put it in neutral, and pushed/rolled it to the lower level. look at the shifter...

^^for sure. it's a theft recovery any way you look at it, as it should be.

[Edited on June 19, 2009 at 7:22 PM. Reason : a lot of "chips" are nothing more than a resistor... gm passkey for example.]

6/19/2009 7:21:18 PM

And they got in the car, broke the steering column, etc. w/out setting off the alarm?

I mean, I know it can be done, but how could they possibly make it worth their while to have the correct equipment, and experience, etc. if it was a "team" of thieves. Seems so hollywood. Not saying it can't/doesn't happen (I mean, look!), but jeez... I guess I should keep full coverage some time longer still! :0

6/19/2009 7:56:15 PM

look at the battery ahmet

6/19/2009 10:18:28 PM

^^exactly 0 people pay any attention to car alarms going off, especially in a metro area like dc. as ^ pointed out though, pulling the negative cable was probably one of the first things done, obviously defeating the audible/visual alerts of any stock system. the primary reason was probably for safely pulling the airbags, though. it's not like the factory anti theft on a honda is anything special anyway. i imagine as long as you hit the power lock button the system is bypassed. generally, only manually unlocks trigger anything.

that's easily a few thousand dollars worth of parts, even "wholesale" on the black market. add in the other vehicle, and that's not bad money at all split between a few people for maybe a couple of hours work total.

6/19/2009 10:42:48 PM

Yea, but how do you even get THAT far? I'm... interested. I'm fascinated by this sort of thing for some reason, the mind of a criminal.

I knew a guy on Rennlist that was sentenced to like 10+ years in prison for running a car theft/parting operation. He did mostly STi/Evos, but had some Ferraris and the like as well. He was finally caught when trying to part a Porsche he stole from a Rennlist member that had some expensive custom engine work...

6/19/2009 10:45:24 PM

get how far? unhooking the battery? it's real simple. break glass, pop hood, remove cable. or, jimmy stick, pop hood, remove cable. OR, seperate door frame/glass with an inflatable/manual wedge, pop hood, remove cable. any way takes all of 30 seconds tops.

6/19/2009 10:57:25 PM

Your post came in before mine, I see that you're saying you think the alarm did go off before they did anything else. I can buy that, but them starting a car and moving it w/out the key seems harder to pull off, but I guess they didn't have to do that in this case...

6/19/2009 11:07:29 PM

build a dune buggy out of it

6/24/2009 11:52:52 AM

Quote :

"Yea, but how do you even get THAT far?"

pull the hood release cable

[Edited on June 24, 2009 at 12:55 PM. Reason : its a civic, not an algebra problem]

[Edited on June 24, 2009 at 12:55 PM. Reason : accord, whatever]

6/24/2009 12:54:00 PM

how much is a damn honda radiator worth? christ.

6/24/2009 9:57:04 PM

I meant without the alarm going off. If they set the alarm off and just didn't care, that's different (as I said above).

6/24/2009 10:22:51 PM

the radiator? mom's going to be pissed they got coolant in her minivan

[Edited on June 24, 2009 at 10:31 PM. Reason : and left her 3rd row behind!]

6/24/2009 10:30:06 PM

Was this near NCSU or off campus? There is no way they'd have time with hand tools, had to have battery powered impacts and shit. Install a 360 degree flamethrower that goes off when someone tries to break in

6/25/2009 1:13:31 AM

It was right by campus in the DC Metro apartment complex.

6/25/2009 1:29:32 AM

^^^ I'd bet they stole the minivan as well. Amusing that they just left the seats out, though. Seems a touch reckless. Might give the cops enough info to piece together info from traffic cams (perhaps one of these locations had security cameras and got a face shot of these guys walking down the sidewalk or something).

Fucking amazing though. I hope insurance covers you well and doesn't give you any crap about this.

6/25/2009 7:38:22 AM

^More like a bit opportunistic. Like they had more time and cars than they thought they would.

6/25/2009 7:52:02 AM

Quote :

"but them starting a car and moving it w/out the key seems harder to pull off, but I guess they didn't have to do that in this case..."

they most likely didn't start it like was mentioned previously.

you can stick a screwdriver in the little keyhole on the shifter panel and unlock it to put it into neutral and push it wherever you want it.

the main downfall of factory systems is the reliance on the horn. pull the horn fuse and be done with audible alerts. of course pulling the battery cable works too and is much faster.

[Edited on June 25, 2009 at 11:17 AM. Reason : d]

6/25/2009 11:16:31 AM

How does a theft of this magnitude happen without anyone noticing???

6/26/2009 11:10:13 AM

Probably happened at 3:00 AM when no one was coming into or out of the garage. And he said it was taken to the lowest level, probability of being seen at that time was very low.

6/26/2009 11:32:03 AM

probably niggers

6/28/2009 8:39:29 PM