Shows and car thieves

[beetlepower]

Cool, I struggle to see the smileys on my phone

[dshux]

I also took a lot of pictures at the Beetle 75th, just hope I didn't look to dodgy when doing it.

On the other side I don't see why thieves would want to steal such old vehicles unless it was really special. I'm not even bothering with an alarm I have VWs finest 36 year old door locks, I battle my arse off to get in and I have the frigging key.

I have bought my bus to enjoy and drive and that's exactly what I am going to do. If somebody feels they must steal it - just take it, at least I won't have to fix the leaky oil cooler , bearings, shocks, the list goes on....

[werner w]

My solution to the problem is as follow, if you have a beach house or property elsewere register the vehicle on that address but use your own postal address ( if you have a P.O.Box). Let them drive all the way there to steal something that is not there.

I do get the odd letter from time to time about "I want to buy your car" or the more pertinent " You can make profit on your car if you let us sell (export) it for you..." . I normaly arrange a meeting with them and dont pitch. If they are that stupid to go all the way to the coast it is their problem....I only go once a year.

[Sambabus]

Apparently they are after bay window busses and not the splits so much,...but that only applies to the local car thieves,if it is a syndicate who is involved,we are all at risk and there isnt a safe acvw,we will all be targets.

[eben]

I do get the odd letter from time to time about "I want to buy your car" or the more pertinent " You can make profit on your car if you let us sell (export) it for you..." . I normaly arrange a meeting with them and dont pitch. If they are that stupid to go all the way to the coast it is their problem....I only go once a year.

Serious?
Ever asked how they got your details?

[calooker]

On the other side I don't see why thieves would want to steal such old vehicles unless it was really special. I'm not even bothering with an alarm I have VWs finest 36 year old door locks, I battle my arse off to get in and I have the frigging key.

I had the same feeling until I almost lost my 58 beetle on mothers day.
I'm muh more carefull now

[vuyo]

a thief is a thief if they want yo shit thay gonna take it

[CooP]

Eben beat me to it, I second his suggestion though - take pictures of the picture-takers and publish them here. At shows and elsewhere. We don't want to get too paranoid but . . .

[werner w]

Serious?
Ever asked how they got your details?[/quote]

They always explain that they have seen the car driving around and traced it

If you have a buddy in the trafic department/ SAPS etc it is easy to obtain the address (postal and residential) and other particulars of the vehicle and owner.

[flatfourfan]

I don't buy this whole take pictures and steal it later deal. The thing is with ACVW's is that we're a close knit crowd, so everyone knows almost everyone, that way word spreads quickly about any dodgy happenings. Imagine if all nissan 1400 owners knew each other like we lot do?

While it is very easy to go to a cop station and obtain details on licence plates. (I did it with my old bus). ACVW's have always been knicked because they are easy to steal fullstop.

Enough of the cloak and dagger stuff, you lot are beginning to sound like Merlin.

Edit: Furthermore.

"There is at least one owner of a beautiful, original bus who no longer attends shows because of suspicious activity around the registered address of the vehicle after it was photographed at a Kult kamp-out and the pics were published online. I suspect there are many more owners of great ACVWs who don't show their cars in public or participate in events for the same reason."

Oh common fig, firstly define suspicious activity? If you told me that there were 4 ninjas in a bay window trolling the neighbourhoods, then I'd say that was suspect.

[fig]

I don't buy this whole take pictures and steal it later deal. ...

Edit: Furthermore.

"There is at least one owner of a beautiful, original bus who no longer attends shows because of suspicious activity around the registered address of the vehicle after it was photographed at a Kult kamp-out and the pics were published online. I suspect there are many more owners of great ACVWs who don't show their cars in public or participate in events for the same reason."

Oh common fig, firstly define suspicious activity? If you told me that there were 4 ninjas in a bay window trolling the neighbourhoods, then I'd say that was suspect.

I don't buy into this paranoia either. However, people, who were apparently seen as not being part of the ACVW community, were seen photographing registration plates only on cars at the Beetle 75th event. That is suspicious behaviour IMO. Draw your own conclusions, but I don't see any reason to do that except for purposes of tracing where to find a car. And, whether or not anyone here understands the motives, ACVWs, especially Beetles, are theft targets and it appears to be a rising trend.

I don't need to define suspicious activity for you; I was merely reporting what this person told me. It is their point of view, not mine. FYI, the "suspicious activity" involved people rocking up at the registered address of the vehicle (it is no longer kept there) and making enquiries and offers on it. I welcome those kinds of approaches because I'm always up for a discussion about ACVWs with anybody, but others are obviously uncomfortable about it. I regularly have people showing up at my house asking if I have any cars for sale. I've never treated that as suspicious myself, but the fact is that others do.

My motive in starting this discussion is to get people over this fear. I don't want people hiding their cars away because of fears like this. For my own selfish reasons I want people to show off their cars at shows and social gatherings. As you know, I drive my ACVWs anywhere and everywhere, and the addresses where I keep them are public knowledge. I take the necessary security precautions without compromising my enjoyment of my cars or getting paranoid about them.

[flatfourfan]

I don't buy this whole take pictures and steal it later deal. ...

Edit: Furthermore.

"There is at least one owner of a beautiful, original bus who no longer attends shows because of suspicious activity around the registered address of the vehicle after it was photographed at a Kult kamp-out and the pics were published online. I suspect there are many more owners of great ACVWs who don't show their cars in public or participate in events for the same reason."

Oh common fig, firstly define suspicious activity? If you told me that there were 4 ninjas in a bay window trolling the neighbourhoods, then I'd say that was suspect.

I don't buy into this paranoia either. However, people, who were apparently seen as not being part of the ACVW community, were seen photographing registration plates only on cars at the Beetle 75th event. That is suspicious behaviour IMO. Draw your own conclusions, but I don't see any reason to do that except for purposes of tracing where to find a car. And, whether or not anyone here understands the motives, ACVWs, especially Beetles, are theft targets and it appears to be a rising trend.

I don't need to define suspicious activity for you; I was merely reporting what this person told me. It is their point of view, not mine. FYI, the "suspicious activity" involved people rocking up at the registered address of the vehicle (it is no longer kept there) and making enquiries and offers on it. I welcome those kinds of approaches because I'm always up for a discussion about ACVWs with anybody, but others are obviously uncomfortable about it. I regularly have people showing up at my house asking if I have any cars for sale. I've never treated that as suspicious myself, but the fact is that others do.

My motive in starting this discussion is to get people over this fear. I don't want people hiding their cars away because of fears like this. For my own selfish reasons I want people to show off their cars at shows and social gatherings. As you know, I drive my ACVWs anywhere and everywhere, and the addresses where I keep them are public knowledge. I take the necessary security precautions without compromising my enjoyment of my cars or getting paranoid about them.

Noted........ .......pitching up at the house and asking questions about the said vehicle is pretty shifty. I wonder if this is more a case of following leads to export, rather than theft though. Both options are dodgy though and I don't approve of either.

I'm all for the removal of plates and licence discs at events though. That's a good idea. Deff a note to remember for CITP as it's not just VW's that are being shipped.

Stay cool........

- G

[dsan]

4 ninja's in a bay. that sounds like one hell of an optional extra i'd be keen on.

[fig]

Noted........ .......pitching up at the house and asking questions about the said vehicle is pretty shifty. I wonder if this is more a case of following leads to export, rather than theft though. Both options are dodgy though and I don't approve of either.

I think it was exporters not thieves (well, exporters are thieves, but you know what I mean ). The person concerned is a very private individual and he was very upset and asked a number of people on these forums to remove online pics of his bus after the incident in question. Since then he has not appeared at any events with his bus, which I feel is a loss to us all.

[flatfourfan]

Noted........ .......pitching up at the house and asking questions about the said vehicle is pretty shifty. I wonder if this is more a case of following leads to export, rather than theft though. Both options are dodgy though and I don't approve of either.

I think it was exporters not thieves (well, exporters are thieves, but you know what I mean ). The person concerned is a very private individual and he was very upset and asked a number of people on these forums to remove online pics of his bus after the incident in question. Since then he has not appeared at any events with his bus, which I feel is a loss to us all.

That is sad.......I know I don't see it as a big deal to see pics online of my cars/ busses, but I can easily see how someone else can be upset about it.

It is a loss...........