Our next door neighbor just sent us a text and a picture. He was down in the Denver metro area last night. Someone broke out the side window of his nearly new truck. Popped the hood, and then stole it. Right, the hood!

There were several things inside the truck that could’ve been stolen, but I guess they were in a hurry.

That's like the tailgate thefts that were so common.....

I lock the tailgate and try to keep the tailgate up near a barrier or wall if possible.

Big insurance money in that racket.

Andrew

Scum bags. Probably to replace their hail damaged hood.

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:
Scum bags. Probably to replace their hail damaged hood.

I’ll bet you’re right

Years ago I lost to a thief my hood, radiator and headlight door off my 87 Omni (i know high end). Car was sitting right in my driveway while I was working afternoons. If I could have pulled in the drive and caught em in the act, I probably would have ran em over at least once.
We were in the middle of a kitchen remodel and I didn't need that shit. Can't you take yourself to the boneyard after an accident?

My friend parked her Honda at an Oakland BART station a few years back, and returned to find everything from the firewall forward missing.

Many years ago, a friend of mine went on a trip to Vegas and left his mid 80's Suburban at a business owned by the guy that he was traveling with. This was a manufacturing company with a huge outdoor storage area for storing their inventory before shipping. Area was completely surrounded by 8-10 foot chain link with barbed wire on top. When my friend returned from Vegas, lo and behold, all four doors and the two cargo doors on the Suburban were gone and there was no sign of fence damage. So either an inside job (not likely as the owners family was always around) or the crooks got the parts over the fence at night. Took my buddy about two months to get his truck back. Insurance had to go to junk yards to locate complete doors have it all painted and matching interior parts ordered and received. The thing you don't think about in this situation is that if you try to order a "door" from GM, it isn't a single part, it consists of hundreds of parts and inevitably, something is going to be back ordered and you have to wait on it. The dealer in this case said, we'll go to junk yards to get complete doors or it will be six months before its fixed.

I hate thieves!

quote:

posted July 18, 2018 11:24 AM Hide Post
Scum bags. Probably to replace their hail damaged hood.

It could also be special order. Professionals can strip parts of a car pretty easily. The average Joe is not so fast. Original OEM hoods are not cheap.

Someone needed a hood.

When I was a kid living outside of Denver circa 1976, someone was building their own VW Beetle. They got our windshield one night during the winter.

They eventually got caught with most of a frankenbeetle.

My boss’s ‘12 F250 was stolen, stripped, and left on a county road.
On fire.

Apparently the F series tailgates with the built in cameras are a high theft item.

As I understand it, there are crews along the TX/Mex border that, if asked for a left side door for a ‘76 El Dorado, will ask back “What color?”

Talked to my neighbor, and saw his truck this evening. The theft occurred in an area of Aurora that has a high vehicle theft rate. His teuck is a black, 3/4 diesel with the domed, louvered hood. He said the hood will fit a few model years and the look of it is desirable, so it may not have been simply that somebody’s truck was hail damaged—the hood has high value as an appearance upgrade alone.

My 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner story:
Many, many years ago, while I was working nights and going to school daytime, I was living in an apartment building. I went out about 11:00 pm to go to work. Gas pedal was on the floor. Looked under hood. No carb. Just the 4 bolts were sitting there and the gasoline line was crimped.

PC

About 1969 I knew of a guy that got in his car to go to work, a 1955 Chevy. As he was pushing in the clutch, it felt funny at about the same time he was grabbing for the four speed floor shifter that was not there. Yep, somebody stole his transmission that night. If you are not familiar with tri-five Chevys they had a four point engine mounting that did not use the transmission for a powertrain mounting point, so four bolts on the transmission case to bellhousing, two u-bolts holding the driveshaft to the rear axle, unscrew the speedometer cable and you have a Muncie four speed.

At a dealership I worked at in the mid 70's a new at the time Monte Carlo was towed in. Well, kind of a Monte Carlo if you consider what was there as a recovery. These guys were good, even the headliner and quarter glasses were gone. Literally a set of frame rails with a completely empty body shell attached.

Seen a lot of thefts over the years while working in car dealerships, tire and wheel thefts from the storage lots was a ho-hum.......radios, everyday occurrence too. One dealership I worked at out west was alongside Interstate 25. We got hit for multiple tailgates one night in the early 80's. That was an inside job though, a fired porter and a couple of his buddies came to supplement his unemployment benefits.......