Off_White Posted June 23, 2003 Posted June 23, 2003 Does removing a faceplate really deter thieves? I'm looking for a little real world experience, has anyone had their deck stolen despite missing faceplate? Quote
marylou Posted June 23, 2003 Posted June 23, 2003 Not distinguishing between TH and non-TH thefts here, but I have never heard of a theft of a car stereo that had its faceplate removed. Replacement faceplates generally cost about the same as the entire stereo, and pro thieves know this. The guys who recently got mine downtown were so thorough they stole the owner's manual too. Quote
mattp Posted June 23, 2003 Posted June 23, 2003 Of course, this assumes you actually remove the face place. If you are like most people I know, you'll do it religiously for the first month or two that you have the thing, and then pretty soon you'll start forgetting about it. Quote
Figger_Eight Posted June 23, 2003 Posted June 23, 2003 I used to just be lazy and toss the faceplate in the glove box. My stereo never got stolen, though. Quote
Rodchester Posted June 23, 2003 Posted June 23, 2003 Does removing a faceplate really deter thieves? I'm looking for a little real world experience, has anyone had their deck stolen despite missing faceplate? Â Hmmmm....I had mine stolen the one time out 300 that I left it on... Â So Mattp is correct......if you keep it off thy won't ripe you off. Quote
thelawgoddess Posted June 23, 2003 Posted June 23, 2003 Figger_Eight said: I used to just be lazy and toss the faceplate in the glove box. My stereo never got stolen, though. Â you were lucky! Quote
mmcmurra Posted June 23, 2003 Posted June 23, 2003 My car has been broken into twice (not a trailheads). In both cases, I'd removed the face plate from my stereo and locked it in the glove compartment. In neither case was the stereo stolen. Given what I've heard about the local trailhead thieves, though (scanning credit cards from locked glove compartments), I might have lost the face plate had the break-ins happened at a trailhead. Quote
Ursa_Eagle Posted June 23, 2003 Posted June 23, 2003 so if trailhead thieves will steal a faceplate in the locked glove compartment, is there any decent way to protect an aftermarket radio? (well, besides hangin' out behind a nearby tree while packin' heat) Quote
thelawgoddess Posted June 23, 2003 Posted June 23, 2003 take the faceplate with you. it won't really deter them from breaking in, but it will likely keep them from stealing your stereo if they do. Quote
ctuller Posted June 23, 2003 Posted June 23, 2003 I epoxied the deck into my old VW Bus. Thieves tried to take it more than once and failed. It will not stop a pro with a sazall tho. I had a deck and speakers ripped off onece. Thieves just cut the whole fricken dash off. Quote
bird Posted June 24, 2003 Posted June 24, 2003 I religiously remove my faceplate after having three stereos stolen over the years. A few months back someone broke into my car again probably hoping to find the face plate hidden somewhere. They didn't get anything, but I got a busted out lock out of the deal. I'm not planning on replacing the lock. The lesson is remove your faceplate. It works. Quote
Szyjakowski Posted June 24, 2003 Posted June 24, 2003 tinted windows and a beeter truck help a bit. but the removeable faceplate...never seen the statistics to back either or... Quote
micajones Posted June 24, 2003 Posted June 24, 2003 Every single folklife fest, our underground garage gets hit hard. Two decks later, I pack the faceplate religiously. Goddamn dead-head hippie faggots. Quote
glen Posted June 25, 2003 Posted June 25, 2003 So, check this out... the other day a friend goes to start his car and no dice. Gets it towed to a shop, comes back later... dead distibutor... comes back the next day and it turns out it wasn't the distributor, but what runs the distributor. Some fuckers selected his car as a particular model of Honda, broke in and stole the master computer from under the seat, and covered their tracks. Probably stole it so they could hotrod it for street racing. That sucks chode. Â They didn't touch anything else in the car. Pretty much a pro job. Quote
chris_w Posted June 25, 2003 Posted June 25, 2003 I think a couple more questions that might need to go along with the stereo is:  A: What kind of car was the stereo in? b: Was there other stuff visible in the car\was the stereo the only thing stolen?   If you have a beat up POS car VS a new car, wouldn't they think the new car would have better items in it? If a thief looked in a car and saw a stereo with a missing face plate vs a car with a missing face plate and other items in it, they would would probably go for the car with stuff in it?  I have a not so fancy car, always remove everything from the front\back seat and put it in the trunk and remove the faceplate. At a glance the only thing they find of value is a stereo with a missing faceplate. Do they want to break in and maybe get a radio? I don't think so. The only time I had my car broken into was in downtown cleveland and that was because I left a couple items in the back seat. I know a bunch of people that have had their cars broken into but they always have stuff in it. Duffel bags, snowboard\ski, ropes, etc.  My $0.02  Chris  Quote
Pencil_Pusher Posted July 1, 2003 Posted July 1, 2003 A long time ago a friend who had a Jeep told me he had glued razor blades to the backside of his stereo so that if anyone reached back there to disconnect cables... I suppose it could make a bad situation worse. One where the thief goes a little bonkers trying to get revenge on the damn car for cutting him. Better yet, the owner/victim would get sued and lose everything as a result of the harm done to the thief. But the best case scenario is the thief gets hurt (you keep your shirt and stereo) and then turns to a better job without such risks. Quote
Dr_Flash_Amazing Posted July 1, 2003 Posted July 1, 2003 DFA would second the opinions leaning towards "no faceplate = not worth it". As a former active shoplifter, the Doctor can attest to theft being all about convenience. If store X puts their Goretex jackets under the security cameras and has one of those electronic alarm setter offer things on them, but store Y has their Gtx sitting in a dark, unwatched corner by the dressing room or something, which store d'you think's gonna be missing inventory? Â Likewise, a few months ago, Dr. Flash Amazing's across the street neighbor had his sound system snaked, courtesy of a busted out window (insult to injury -- jerkwads). Neighbor in question had no alarm, and presumably had the faceplate on (not 100% sure). DFA's car, directly across the street, has an unusually bright LED for the alarm, the stereo face was off, and the disc changer is out of sight. Â It just seems like, if every car at the trailhead/in the parking lot/wherever has got a stereo, and yours is the only one that doesn't have a faceplate, they're gonna go after someone else and up their chances. You might even get all Radio Shack and rig up a blinking LED on your dash board for good measure. Quote
erik Posted July 1, 2003 Posted July 1, 2003 THO WHEN YOU LEAVE YOUR VEHICLE AT THE TRAILHEAD, YOU GONNA BRING YOUR FACE PLATE INTO THE MTNS??? Â Â Quote
Dr_Flash_Amazing Posted July 1, 2003 Posted July 1, 2003 Just run some 3mm cord through the cassette/disc slot and clip it to your harness. If things get epic, you can always rap off of it. Quote
erik Posted July 1, 2003 Posted July 1, 2003 DOH! Â WHY DIDNT I THINK OF THAT?? Â DFA, DID YOU CLIMB ANY OF THAT SHITE IN ZION I WAS SPRAYING ABOUT??? Â WHERES THE TR??? Â Â Quote
Ursa_Eagle Posted July 1, 2003 Posted July 1, 2003 Dr_Flash_Amazing said: Just run some 3mm cord through the cassette/disc slot and clip it to your harness. If things get epic, you can always rap off of it. Â Quote
Dr_Flash_Amazing Posted July 1, 2003 Posted July 1, 2003 erik said: DOH! Â WHY DIDNT I THINK OF THAT?? Â DFA, DID YOU CLIMB ANY OF THAT SHITE IN ZION I WAS SPRAYING ABOUT??? Â WHERES THE TR??? Â Â We hit up the sport routes up in Kolob Canyon. Fuckin' spectacular goodness there. We eyeballed Tourist Crack, which looked cool, but we didn't wind up getting back up there to climb it. Maybe if we had been able to just drive up and not have to take 45 min. on the shuttle. We looked at the Pulpit, too, but the mini bolt ladder fuckaround start looked sorta jive, and the top only looked so-so, thus we crossed that off the list. Plus it was a jillion degrees out. A jillion. Was hot, too. Â Sorry! We did watch some poor soloist bastard baking to a frcking crisp hanging in his aiders on Space Shot, though. Misery with a capital M right there. And some other climbers had to get rescued 'cause they were all dehydrated or some shit. Â There you have it, pretty much. Quote
erik Posted July 1, 2003 Posted July 1, 2003 YEAH KOLOB BLOWS MY MIND!!!!!!!!!!1 ADVENTURE ROUTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Â COME ON WUSSERS.....THE PULPIT AINT THAT BAD!!!!! Â GLAD TO HEAR IT WAS GOOD!! Â Quote
chirp Posted July 1, 2003 Posted July 1, 2003 DFA, what sport routes did ya do in Kolob? Im just curious which ones ya did? I assume ya did the Hueco routes but did ya do any others? Quote
Dr_Flash_Amazing Posted July 2, 2003 Posted July 2, 2003 Jus' two of the hueco'd ones; the .10d warmup and then Namaste. Pumpy and sandy and long. We looked at some of the SLABBY routes, too, but once you hike for an hour plus in all that heat, and you finally get to this shady wall with the most incredible looking climbing on it, it's real easy to forget about climbing slabs. 'Specially if you hate climbing slabs anyway. Quote
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