still ticking.. or... to hell and back

mcsjeep · **Posted:** Wed Apr 11, 2007 12:28 am

First, I'm back lurking after a long hiatus and was about to sign off for good until this morning. But first I'll back up to New years eve. My son borrowed my 02 Lib to go and hang out with friends and managed to hit black ice in a parking lot, and hits a curb at a 45 degree angle on the passenger side. He phones me to say that it's pulling real bad to the right.
I drive into town the next morning and find a 8 inch flat spot on the steel rim. We change the wheels but she is still pulling bad. Luck would have it, the local shop got me in the next day. Long story short, Lower ball joint is bent like a witches finger, (just had ball joint recall in Sept.) also the spindle is shot. $550 later and I'm back on the road. Jump ahead to 5 am April fools day, get up to let the dog out, and to my horror the Lib has been stolen. They told me that after 48 hours it's as good as gone. So for a week I went through a lot of emotions, finally last night I accepted the fact it was gone. I was even going to give my favorite jeep hat away.
Today was the last day and they were going to right it off. 9:30 this morning the police called from a town 30 miles away and said they found it. Some filthy (as in unwashed) punks had been using it to sleep in as well as doing other B+E's. Other than it stinks to high heaven and a few minor things missing she is O.K. It is at a shop getting the fine tooth comb so I hope to have her home by the weekend.
I feel for anyone who has been ripped off. I was a rare lucky one.

P.S. It's funny.... at the time, what I dwelt on the most was the loss of my home made rock rails and 5/16 inch thick stainless steel tranny skid.

P.S.S. I think after all she's been through a nice "lift" is in order!!

Mike.

Pablo · **Joined:** Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:06 pm **Posts:** 1201

mcsjeep wrote:

First, I'm back lurking after a long hiatus and was about to sign off for good until this morning. But first I'll back up to New years eve. My son borrowed my 02 Lib to go and hang out with friends and managed to hit black ice in a parking lot, and hits a curb at a 45 degree angle on the passenger side. He phones me to say that it's pulling real bad to the right.
I drive into town the next morning and find a 8 inch flat spot on the steel rim. We change the wheels but she is still pulling bad. Luck would have it, the local shop got me in the next day. Long story short, Lower ball joint is bent like a witches finger, (just had ball joint recall in Sept.) also the spindle is shot. $550 later and I'm back on the road. Jump ahead to 5 am April fools day, get up to let the dog out, and to my horror the Lib has been stolen. They told me that after 48 hours it's as good as gone. So for a week I went through a lot of emotions, finally last night I accepted the fact it was gone. I was even going to give my favorite jeep hat away.
Today was the last day and they were going to right it off. 9:30 this morning the police called from a town 30 miles away and said they found it. Some filthy (as in unwashed) punks had been using it to sleep in as well as doing other B+E's. Other than it stinks to high heaven and a few minor things missing she is O.K. It is at a shop getting the fine tooth comb so I hope to have her home by the weekend.
I feel for anyone who has been ripped off. I was a rare lucky one.

P.S. It's funny.... at the time, what I dwelt on the most was the loss of my home made rock rails and 5/16 inch thick stainless steel tranny skid.

P.S.S. I think after all she's been through a nice "lift" is in order!!

Mike.

Wow. Stuff like that really torques you off when it happens. We had a 4x4 stolen by some kids and they stripped parts off of it and then pushed it in river-- ruining the rest of it. I am just glad you got yours back and they caught who did it. I would say it is high time to lift it. Might as well solve your ball joint problems with a straight axle conversion while you are at it!

jcphoto20 · **Joined:** Sun Nov 19, 2006 1:36 am **Posts:** 507

congrats on gettin it back in one piece, mostly. febreeze the heck out of it, and give her a fresh wax, you'll both enjoy it.

QuestMan · **Posted:** Wed Apr 11, 2007 7:59 am

Glad to hear you got her back. Did she have the Sentry Key? If so, how the heck did they manage to get her to run without the right key?

Donkeykong · **Posted:** Wed Apr 11, 2007 9:34 am

wow.

I *almost* had my 2000 Integra Type R stolen out of my driveway.... long story short the would be theifs ripped out the key portion and tried to start the car by turning the ignition switch that would normally get turned by the key mechanism. (it wasn't even hotwiring, they just bypassed the key portion of the ignition) Long story short, the car had some sort of sentry protection and foiled their attempts. The only thing I was confused about is why they had broken the steering wheel off and left it in the car? (they had managed to snap the splined rod that the steering wheel turns)

I didn't take pictures (kinda glad I didn't, that was a bad day) but I always wonder if my having the wheels cut rather than straight helped foil the attempt?

I feel your pain.

A good alarm would probably be in order as well.

Is it up to you to press charges?
you should.
-Mark

dgeist · **Posted:** Wed Apr 11, 2007 11:32 am

Donkeykong wrote:

wow.

I *almost* had my 2000 Integra Type R stolen out of my driveway.... long story short the would be theifs ripped out the key portion and tried to start the car by turning the ignition switch that would normally get turned by the key mechanism. (it wasn't even hotwiring, they just bypassed the key portion of the ignition)
-Mark

I had the same thing happen some years ago to my 1994 integra. Punks pryed the driver's window open to get a slimjim in and unlocked the door, scaping the door trim paint all to hell then completely mangled the steering column trying to get a screwdriver into the ignition. Didn't steal a damned thing but did 1500 worth of damage in the process.

That's not the only time someone broke into the integra that was stupid and thought "The fast and the furious" was a cinematic masterpiece. I'm glad I don't have it anymore. Good riddence to the "most highly stolen car in the US" for 3 years.

I am glad for one reason, though. My "fry threshhold" has gone way down for criminals. I never get chosen during jury selection anymore

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Wed Apr 11, 2007 12:33 pm

Heck ya press charges.. Give it all ya got.

Glad you got it back in one piece..

Wouldnt be a bad idea to get sentry key installed and a security system. If not that, figure out a way to put a cut off switch on the fuel pump and hide the switch.

FastTRX · **Posted:** Wed Apr 11, 2007 2:57 pm

Wow that was one story. Really glad to hear you got it back...I hope everything works well for you. Down with Crooks I say... :evil:

Your KJ definitly deserves a lift!

myjeepwalks · **Posted:** Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:22 pm

Well at least you got it back. I hate scum bag theives! :twisted:

oh and what are B+E's?

mcsjeep · **Posted:** Wed Apr 11, 2007 9:12 pm

myjeepwalks wrote:

Well at least you got it back. I hate scum bag theives! :twisted:

oh and what are B+E's?

Sorry... B+E's are "Brake and enter"

Mike.

mcsjeep · **Posted:** Wed Apr 11, 2007 9:33 pm

QuestMan wrote:

Glad to hear you got her back. Did she have the Sentry Key? If so, how the heck did they manage to get her to run without the right key?

Well you caught me there, I'll finish the story from my end. On the Sat morning I decided to start the old spring cleaning on the vehicles. I had gone down to the rent-a -storage where I keep all my stuff, and picked up the 4 summer tires for my Mazda 3. I figured that if it snowed I'd drive the Jeep to work and if not I'd take my little hotrod. Long story short, I had planed to make several trips to storage that day so the keys were in the centre glove box ( just a bad habit). I had put the snow tires off the Mazda in the back of Lib to run them back to storage. Wife comes out and says lets go shopping, so we took the Mazda. Came home around dinner time so by the time stuff put away and had dinner, it was late so I didn't go back outside. I usually lock the vehicles up from the house using the other key fob. This time I missed it. So it is very easy to steal a car when you have the keys. ( the jeep was parked in the side yard boxed in by the Mazda and my sons Cobalt, they backed around them through the rock garden)

:oops:

Mike

dirtykj · **Posted:** Wed Apr 11, 2007 11:48 pm

Well the sentry key thing isn't gonna help you there is it? :roll:

At least there's a good ending ... welcome back!

still ticking.. or... to hell and back

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