If you have a 1990s Honda and like to spend time in central Arcata, it might be a good idea to make sure your locks are in really, really good shape.
Someone, probably someone with a few altered keys, has been taking aging Hondas, driving them around for a day or two, and then leaving them, usually undamaged, in one of the remoter corners of the city.
The motive?
“Transportation,” said Detective Sgt. Todd Dokweiler of the Arcata Police Department.
Since April, more than a dozen cars have gone missing this way, he said, which pretty much makes it a major crime wave compared to Arcata’s usual rate of auto thefts.
The thief or thieves will sometimes take appealing goodies from inside the car — cell phones or other electronics — but police theorize that the culprits are taking these cars mainly to use them, possibly to commit other crimes overnight. And they don’t have to bother hot-wiring them. A well-altered key will not just open an aging Honda, but start it up just fine, Dokweiler said. (Who knew? Well, OK, somebody knew.)
Police have gotten some fingerprints from the recovered cars, but haven’t made any arrests yet.
A few of the thefts have occurred in residential neighborhoods, but most have been in a central area roughly bordered by Samoa Boulevard, 17th Street, K Street and Highway 101, he said.
Along with making sure locks are in good shape, he said, owners of vulnerable cars should park in visible spots and consider getting a club or other steering wheel locking device.
This article appears in Tsunami Boats.
A friend of mine just had hers stolen over the weekend. She got it back, in rougher shape, yesterday.
My friend got his stolen on the street behind Wildberries. He did get it back. However, his baseball glove and car stereo was stolen and they messed with a picture of Ghandi(?!). Oh, and they left diapers behind.
Disable the automatic door locks. It’s a bad design. Very easy to open the door with a coat hanger. After that if you have a key that is close, bye bye to your car. The thieves take your car to their place, steal anything worth it, syphon your gas, and jack the stereo.
Saw four people with flashlights in one of the parking lot areas on Heather, early this A.M. Lots of people’s leases are up at the end of May or June and it attracts a lot of attention. Time to start using the steering wheel lock again. I agree about the auto door locks. I locked my keys in the car once and was amazed how easy it was to pop it with a hooked wire.
Automatic doorlocks or not, they can easily get in. Our Honda was one of those. I’ve done a ton of research (check youtube), and found a simple filed key gets into pretty much any honda from that era, give or take. The ignition is a little trickier, which apparently ours was. They completely stripped out the ignition assembly and pulled out the ignition switch. Now I know why Hondas are so easy to steal. It’s awful engineering and takes anything pointed to turn the switch and start the car. I’m going to install one of these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRNVxHPJ0hM
Back in the 70’s Toyota had few keys. I had a very worn one for my pickup and was able to open 3 other peoples Toyota’s at a party with that key. It even started one of them.
A couple of years later someone was locked out of their Toyota at the store and I said, let me try mine and it also opened it. The lady was amazed.