General Forum : How a car forum caught the thief of a members car.

g323	Posted Saturday, Apr 12th 4:37pm [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car]
Member Post nr. 245 California 323i 1982	http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/automobiles/13STEAL.html?_r=1&oref=login

aussie323i	Posted Sunday, Apr 13th 10:54am [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car]
Member Post nr. 612 australia 1979 323i	that's a great story! Good to see a board so proactive - recovering the member's car within 48 hours

MayanArch	Posted Sunday, Apr 13th 7:51pm [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car]
Member Post nr. 1531 Florida, USA Baur E21 2.7 1982, Baur E30 318i 1985, 323i 1978	It seems that people are either getting stupider about how to commit crimes, or the Internet is exposing the large amount of stupidity. Gee, steal an ultra-rare care, and then be stupid enough to be riding it around town giving the thumbs up to every joe. Its like those teenagers who wanted to be famous.......so they decided to beat up another kid, film it, and put it on YouTube. Duh!!! I think they are all in jail now. Or that gangster who decided to voice his intentions of commiting acts of violence against police officers.....and taped himself....and posted the video of his proclamation on MySpace. Double DUH!!!!~ In jail too.

melloh	Posted Sunday, Apr 13th 10:31pm [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car]
Member Post nr. 656 California, USA (San Jose) 1980 320is, 1991 318is	Mayan... agreed. However, as an educator, I can't resist emphasizing the roll parents play in al this. Well, it's more like the roll they NEGLECT to play, really. While I know many would argue about socioeconomic stuff... I realize it makes it more difficult, but NOT impossible. http://prodigalsun.typepad.com/the_prodigal_sun/images/thief41_1.jpg http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4271266 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18729564/ http://www.khq.com/global/story.asp?s=7970417 Ok, not actually advocating this... especially not for young children. But, if my teen did something incredibly stupid (and especially dangerous), my hesitation would last as long as a phantom sneeze. As for these online communities, I agree. They are great, and I am sure there are more stories told that we don't know about. However, I highly suggest Mr. Ironside get LoJack for his car and consider himself lucky!!

MayanArch	Posted Monday, Apr 14th 12:55am [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car]
Member Post nr. 1532 Florida, USA Baur E21 2.7 1982, Baur E30 318i 1985, 323i 1978	OMG!! Thats some funny stuff. Yes! Definetly cases of stupid crimes are lack of parenting. I have a 11 and 12 yr-old.......and I am a full believer in active parenting.,......and that lack of parenting leads to the majority of these cases. But no....its not the parent's fault...its the teacher's fault. Its "the village" that failed...since it "takes a village"....geez. Did you hear about the teacher who warned a student that was threatening to beat her up that she would defend herself......she got blamed by the principal at the school because she used "trigger" words that escalated the violence...in other words, she told the kid that was in her face that she would defend herself. Geez. On a technical note, I am weighing the possibility of a LoJack on my Baur. The problem with LoJacks in Miami is that the sophisticated car thieves time the theft perfectly with the departing of a ship on its way South. By the time you notice, the car may very well be in International waters.

melloh	Posted Monday, Apr 14th 9:33am [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car]
Member Post nr. 657 California, USA (San Jose) 1980 320is, 1991 318is	Reegarding teachers... their role has changed dramatically. I DO believe in the "village" ideology, but it irks me deeply if a parent sheds responsibility to the school/teacher. Cmon... one teacher per 30-80 students (yes, I said 80... think recess, and think lower socioeconomic areas). I conversed with a teacher who taught for 25+ years. She was an AMAZING teacher who has evolved well with the times. Defnitely, modern teacher do and should play a broader role than yester-years. However, we both agreed that it should not be from the teacher that the first time a child hears "stealing and hitting others is bad" (as an example of very very VERY basic social and safety skills). Sprry, I'll stop now as I can get carried away on this topic. Back to the cars: Wow... that's like 'gone in 60 seconds' stuff, there. I may get the dunce cap for saying this, but even a beautiful e21 baur probably isn't a big ticket item. From my experience and observation only (west coast/LA), a car like yours is more likely going to be a) vandalized for being a clean BMW (which is why I sometimes purposely kept the car dirty if I knew I was going to be in certain parts of LA) or b) stolen as a joyride then ditched (where LoJack comes in handy). The e21 bauer is such an unknown car to americans that if someone stole it for keeps, he's already so motivated to search and target it that there is nothing that can be done (within reason). Thats just my opinion, of course. No data to back this up. PS: Sorry if that scares you! But, I imagine you were already far more aware of these things than I.

MayanArch	Posted Monday, Apr 14th 8:08pm [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car]
Member Post nr. 1533 Florida, USA Baur E21 2.7 1982, Baur E30 318i 1985, 323i 1978	Question, dont you believe the "village" mentality is at least somewhat, if not largely, responsible for parents just simply handing off all responsibility to the teachers/government? If nothing is your responsibility, and all solutions and problems are for the government to solve.......well.....Sorry to throw a little Reaganism there: "Government isnt the solution. It is the problem". MIAMI & LoJacks. Definetly my car isnt a big ticket item in Miami. The biggest targets are SUVs. Those are very desireable in the third world roads......where as a nice Ferrari or even BMW doesnt fare well in the poorly maintained roads. However, there is a big following for classic BMWs in the Caribean.....where a lot of the pirate/car theft ships go to.

melloh	Posted Monday, Apr 14th 10:53pm [Edit] [Quote] [IMS] [View car]
Member Post nr. 658 California, USA (San Jose) 1980 320is, 1991 318is	This is in the "General" and not "Technical" forum, right? ha ha ha... I worry I'm going to irritate members further as this topic is very UN-e21 related. I personally have NO problem answering it (and am very very tempted to), but again, it seems out of line for this forum. So, unless someone else really wants to see my reply publicly, I'll IMS you my reply instead. As for your car, too bad the anti-theft system from ROBOCOP will never be legally allowed. (At least I think that's where I saw it). Basically, when the car detects it is being stolen, it'll turn the driver's seat into an electric execution chair and cook the crook.