As some of you are aware, I had my BR Catback stolen off my car a week ago. I've been doing a little detective work since then and it has bore some fruit.

I neglected to mention in my initial post that in addition to my catback being stolen, a number of other items inside my car were also stolen (jack, worklight, flashlight, extension cord, etc).

Anyway, back to the story. I've been prowling around my underground the last few nights (mostly during prime-time theiving hours) looking for anything interesting (like people, cars, etc. that shouldn't be there, look suspicious, etc., etc.) During one of my searches I happened upon a white Honda Civic (mid to late 80's?) that I'd never seen parked in the underground before. Well, well, this could be interesting. Move in for a closer inspection and it starts getting even more interesting. The glass is all heavily tinted so it's tough to see inside. Check out the passenger compartment: nothing noteworthy. Walk around the back to peer into his hatch. Oh, what's that. It sort of looks like my jack. And that light in the corner, that sure looks like the one I used to have. And wait, isn't that my blue extension cord underneath it. Yeah, it sure looks like it. Insert Elmer Fud accent: "There's something very scwuie going on here". Anyway, to cut to the chase, I open up his hatch (his doors were open) and sure enough, all my missing items are there. Well, except for my exhaust, of course.

(Just in case anyone sitting at home sits bolt upright and declares: "How do you know those items were yours! Did you have your name ingraved in them! Maybe the guy just shops at all the same stores you do!" Well, that is a possiblity. Maybe he does have all the same items in his hatch as I used to. But wait, did he also, coincidently, happen to have black Tremclad paint splashed on the top of his jack? And what about that tire iron. Did he just happen to cut off the pry bar end, and start a cut on one of the other ends before changing his mind? 'Cause that's what I did with mine, and that matches the one I found in his hatch. And what about that yellow work light. It's got the same little "melt" mark on the top corner where I burned it on my ex-mani a long time ago. Isn't that a neato coincidence! I could continue, but I think you get my point.)

Back to the story. Actually, that's about it. I took all my items back up to my apartment (didn't put them in my car this time). I've spent most of my spare time since contemplating my next move. I'll probably eventually file another police report and, probably, contact the building management. Still weighing all my options. Just thought some of you may have been interested.

I'll post more info as it occurs.

Paul you should have left the stuff there and call the cops right away. Then they can work on twisting the screws and maybe getting your exhaust back. I dunno might be enough evidence to take em to court to get the cash at least.

Either that or we can have the club meet in your underground and see how fast we can completely disassemble a white honda civic and then take all the bolts and throw em in Lake ontario.

Im assuming you took down the plate number already... just find out where he lives or wait for him by the car one morning and confront the fracker. You can do what most of us (who have been victims in the past) only DREAM OF!!!

This guy cant be too bright if he is a thief who leaves the goods in his car in the same lot with the door open So tell him you have pictures of all the evidence in his car his plate yada yada and pull a Tony Soprano on him ....the exhaust or else.

You're right Jerry, that's what I should have done. The problem is, how was I going to prove to the proper authorities that those items were mine (and to the exclusion of all others). It would be damn near impossible. Also, I've had a few experiences with the Hamilton police in reporting thefts, and, to be perfectly blunt, they really seemed disinterested. I'm not making a blanket statement about the police in general, I'm just reporting my personal experiences with a specific police force. I mean, let's be serious for a monemt here: are they really going to give a flying f*ck about the sad stories of one sorry John Q Public? I mean, I don't know anyone. I'm not the mayor's son. I don't rub elbows with the elite of Hamilton society, etc., etc. And to be fair; is the theft of one lousy exhaust system really worth the resources of the police? Especially with so many crack heads wandering around in this city. I just don't have the patience to wait six months for the police to get around to looking into things.

I'm going to contact the building management and, with any luck, they may contact the police. They may have more pull than I do, but I'm not betting on it.

Ok then my vote is intimidation and disassembly then

I'd be under that hood messing stuff up so that his car runs like sh!t until he spends $$$$$ at a mechanic to figure out why it isn't working...

You know, remove a spark plug here.. Tennis ball in the intake pipe there... etc...

He caused you some grief..., so have some fun with it at his expense!

Paul, you shouldn't take this and walk away. Not with an expensive exhaust system and the fact that they stole your exhaust is just amazement.

Anyways, what you should do is get him to admit it on tape. This can be easily done with some roguish scams.
Take a picture of both your car and his and develop them. Hide a voice recorder in your pocket and then confront him showing the two pictures, stating the Talon belongs to you and the white civic belongs to him. Confront him saying that you saw your stuff in his car (him knowing by now that the stuff he had stolen is gone now).
At this point he'll probably admit he stole the exhaust system and he'll follow with “you can't prove it”.
Also don’t forget to introduce your self and ask for his name before the confutation.

haha Rob its a Honda and the drivers an idiot how else is the car going to run.

I think when the guy comes down and finds all the stuff gone he will be paranoid cause he knows that you know that he knows you know...you know? Make him sweat

Paul, I think i'd have been a dink and cracked open his hatch, engraved my name on the back of all of my gear, closed it up, and called the cops (remeber, wear gloves)

Hey, you can still do it, just go put it all back lol

Paul

I'm for the disassembly....first his honda, then him!!

Paul,

All I can say is WOW, its great you found the guy but I was in a similar situation to you a while back. I had a PPI EQP (relatively expensive equalizer) stolen from my 90 laser (among other things, ie: one racing pedal, shift knob, one 6.5" woofer)

Fast forward a few weeks. I work a SpeakerDirect (we manufacture speakers and sell them through our store), this guy comes in looking for wire to do an installation in our parkinglot. So I go out there to see what he's installing, no sh!t isn't that a PPI EQP... That's funny I think, why would this guy buy such a nice EQ when he only has a discman to connect it to... Why does it look like it was RIPPED out of a car. Oh that's right, ITS MINE. So I was trying to coax it out of him and he admited that it was stolen property (a "friend" stole it). I was VERY certain that this was mine, not too many people have this unit and it was missing the same screws that I lost from it!)

Anywho, the whole point to this was that once I told him it was mine and I want it back, his whole story changed, it wasn't stolen, a friend gave it too him. Took down his plates but even if I called the cops I couldn't do anything. I couldn't prove that it was mine, I didn't write down the serial numbers. It was my word against his, man was I pissed, but what can you do.

The one thing I didn't know was whether this guy did steal it or whether indeed his "friend" stole it and sold it too him. You on the other hand know that this guy did it, and I'm with the others in the fact that you MUST get some sort of vindication.

Sorry to hear about all of this, please keep us posted.

I'm for the disassembly....first his honda, then him!!

I woulda waited for him to go to his car and absolutely crush his legs with a baseball bat. Crime doesn't pay buddy.

I didn't want to mention this, but I actually did have a bat with me. I used to play ball a few years back, so I know how to use it. 'Course, I never did get a chance to practice my swing.

Unfortunately these days if Paul were to rough him up a bit then Im sure he and his 'posse' would rough Paul up even more and the cycle would continue until someone was really hurt. Or they will screw with the car, smashing windows, slashing tires etc...

I have found with situations like this its not worth the trouble. The cops are a waste of time but I would try the building management they may actually do something.

Ok, I`m gonna show up with Ziggy and do the dissasembly thing if you don't

Good job on locating your stuff Paul

10 or 15 DSMers maybe a compressor with our tools and that car could be laying in pieces on the ground in no time . But accidentally opening the gas cap and dropping a cup o sugar couldnt hurt much but wait for a few weeks.

hmm thats luck man i wish i caught the guy that tried to break into my car with my copper head bat. I would just wait in his drivers seat until he comes back to his car and greet him with a bat dont mention anything about your car he wont even know who u are just some looney beating him plus the sugar and the dissasembly of his car all works out for the best

don't touch the guys car, u never know who your dealing with. some people are theives, some people are stupid with stupid friends that don't care about nobody including themselves. It's not worth your time if the guy has shady friends that just don't give a frack.

I think its time for a DSM meet and beat... we all gonna meet and beat the sh!t otta this guy!!

Great, he broke into your car and now you've broken into his car to "steal your stuff back". No matter what, you broke into his car as well.
I would play a game with this dude, just approach him and tell him that cops are watching him. Tell him that you have not failed an official complaint, but if he does not give you your exhaust back thery's going to be cops knocking on his door.
YOU don't have to beat it out of him.

The ECU is at the passengers feet, near the firewall. Steal it.

I live nearby if you need some help confronting the guy or his car

Wow paul, this is a crazy story, I missed your thread about having your cat-back stolen. To jack up your car, crawl under and steel your car-back exhaust is a lot of work. They must have scoped your car out for a while before they did this.

I would have parked my car right behind his car and called the cops, that way he's not going anywhere and the cops will see your stuff in his trunk.

But now that you already have your stuff back it's a bit more complicated. Yhe important thing now is geting your exhaust back and making sure this guy (or his friends) dosn't try to steel it again.

At least he didn't steel the stupid jack

Some theives are really stupid. This summer Mark Edmond (from the board) knew a guy that got his rims stolen, he was at work when some guy in a riced out civic drove in with his buddies rims on his car. Long story short the guy said he baught the rims off a friend for 400.00 or something and after a little talking to didn't mind giving the rims back to the original owner. How stupid are you to steel rims and then drive around with them on your car? Especially in a smaller city like welland.

Paul;

That was good work and at least you got some of your lost stuff back. But I think the main item is still the exhaust, which worths a lot more than the sum of the others.

Did you check under his car to see if he actually have your muffler installed?

Did you get to see the guy?

Were you be able to tail him to his nest?

By taking your stuff, you exposed yourself to him which may reduce your chance of getting your exhaust back to zero.

Anyway, for dismantling his car, I can at list "light you".

Kapak

I'm glad you found some of your stuff, Paul. Good Detective work on your part there.

For all we know the guy (or his buddies) could be lurking here reading all these postings.

I think any suggestions on countermeasures should be dealt with offline just to be on the safe side.

Let me tell you a little story.


Once I lived in this apartment building in Scarborough (no flaming please)... The place was pretty civilized car theft was a rare occasion. Then this one week some one started to break in to bunch of cars, smash and grab style. Cops didn't do much, just take a report and leave. Time went on and the smash and grab continued. Every morning I was wondering, "would I be next"? Hopefully my car was left alone, I guess the flashing LED in my Driver Door was deterring the thieves (good ol' VW factory security system). Some people wanted to save their glass and left the cars opened, or at least open up the glove box so that the stupid thieves could see that there is nothing to grab. My uncle left his beater opened all the time, but that didn't stop the thieves, they still smashed the glass to get in.. DUHHH! The supper and his buddy didn't have anything better to do, so they decided to setup a surveillance post. For their viewing point, they used one of the rooms that had its back wall to the underground garage. They took the effort to remove one of the bricks from the back of the wall, and observe the garage during the night. After few nights of drinking (opps, did I say it out loud?) the thieves, or thief I don't remember, showed up to do their deed. The super and his buddy, all through a bit tipsy caught them red handed breaking in to a car. I'm not sure if they grabbed them and held them or if the cops arrived in time, but in any case the cops had them. Good stuff you might think? Well it turned out that the cops didn't feel like filing a report, because they let them go with a warning. That's what you get for your effort to protect your community property? Maybe they learned a lesson. In any case the smash jobs have ceased, and we had a thief free garage for a while. Then some one got shot or stabbed, but that's a different story, it was time to move out.

Other one from a paper article. Group of teens was bored or frustrated and decided to take their frustration on bunch of cars parked on the street. Few shoots at a windshield with a baseball bat sounds like a relaxing thing to do. Little did they know the owners of the cars were also good baseball fans, and they brought their baseball bats with them. When the Police arrived, they found few teens with broken bones and head concussions. I guess they had to file a report for this outrageous crime. I don't think the vandals ever returned to that street, and no that was not in Scarberia.

Yeah, cops aren't going to do SQUAT in this case then. You have to fend for your own rights and justice in this world it seems.

^ agreed, justice is blind and sometimes u have to take matters into ur own hands if u want something to be done.

Like someone else mentioned, suger in the gas tank is nice. Shady, sneaky, and stealthy. He can't point fingers if he doesn't know who it is.

Remember, revenge is a dish best served cold.

I dont understand why some of you are still telling Paul to screw with the guys car? So Paul pours sugar in the tank, or keys it, or smashes some windows. The thief is going to put two and two together and what do you think will happen to Pauls car the next day? Instead of being out a catback hes gonna need to replace windows,tires, or whatever they feel like doing to the car.
Back in the day if you got into a fight and beat the guy up that was it, no retaliation for the most part. These days you beat someone up, they round up all their crew and beat your ass even badder. There is no damn respect amongst people. This is the exact same situation but in a different manner.

Unless Paul is prepared to beat this guy to near death, so bad that he wont be able to retaliate then these small payback tricks are more trouble then they are worth.

While my heart is telling me to say "Shut up Peter!", my brain tells me he's right. Is it really worth it?

I think all of us here who've been victimized by one of these asswipes would love to see some damage done to this punk. However, not only do you risk retaliation from this guy and/or his 'gang', you risk being on the wrong side of the law.

I'm sure most of us are just "dreaming" of what we would do - in an ideal world - where you mess with me, I mess with you and that's the end of it

In the end you really have to agree with Peter.. Nothing good will come of it in the long run - but it sure as hell would feel good for a little while eh

The only way is to confront him! Just do it already and make sure you have a friend or two with you. The recording device in your pocket is a good idea too.

I would just write "you owe me an exaust" on a piece of paper and stick it under his wiper.

You should report him to building security (if it so exists) he could be casing another vechicle to harvest parts from.

I wouldn't recommend destruction of property, but if I was you I probally would of taken the jack out and then put it back in. Throught the hatch window of course.

Think about it tho, thats $600 of your money. Thats not petty theft.

I know we are just having some fun with some possible courses of action but the reality of it is the world is a crazy place and people get killed for less sh!t than this. A report to the police and management if applicable just so there is a record . The fact Paul repo'd the rest of his stuff makes it tough to bring up who he thinks did it. Have a chat with the Honda guy if the opportunity presents itself as he could be a 300 lb drug pusher wannabe who walks his two pitbulls for fun Or worse a 90 lb punk who thinks he is a gansta and pulls a gun. Plus Paul is a nice guy.

Anything I did would be up close and personal so the little bitch was absofckinglutley clear why his car had Louisville slugger holes in his windows...and I could answer any questions he may have at that point. If I had caught the fckers who stole my 92 the only reason the police would need to be called was so they could fill out the paperwork while EMS was wheeling them into the back of the ambulance.

Guys dont get me wrong. I have been a victim of this sh!t many many times and Im sure if I ever caught someone doing it the first thing I would do is beat his ass.
I also realize most of the comments made here aren't very serious. The reason I said what I did is to hopefully save someone else from doing this down the road and save themselves some trouble. I am speaking from experience.

Now Im going to shut up.

I was parked outside a party two months ago and when I returned to my car I found my doors wide open with everything stolen including my dads 1960's original sims skateboard which is priceless. Three weeks ago a friend of mine was telling me about this punk (pete) who stolen $300 at her party, anyways I was standing outside the movie theaters waiting to buy a ticket when I see Pete wearing my hooded sweatshirt that was also stolen from my car (shirt is one of a kind). I know where he lives and me and a few of my buddies will be going to talk to his mom this week and if one thing is missing I will have his mom pay me cash for the value of brand new replacements. I know this is an easier situation for me as his mom most likely is a responsible person and will correct the situation. I hope this guy gets what he deserves. What goes around comes around.