So my opinion is that it never hurts to ask the police what to do. If the seats are valued as high as I've heard, what a couple thousand each retail, then you are in the range of grand theft which is a felony and they tend to take it seriously. I don't know how many seat sales are real but I would guess that most are thefts, if so then it pays to check them out. FYI if you can get a name and a number from the seller then you can go down to the police and check if they've ever owned and s2k. If they haven't then it's probably pretty likely they are dealing in stolen merchandise. Even if the cops can't prove it going down and questioning them, putting a little heat on them may turn up other things or could just convince them it's not worth it.

Raj sorry to hear about you loss that sucks!! You know if a thief checks this or any site and realizes that we on to him then maybe next time he won't steal them because it's not worth it Is it going to be easy, no but I'll promise you if it happens to me I'm going to get my pound of flesh I do get a perverse pleasure in ing over criminals

 

There are a lot of S2000 seats for sale on Craigslist and other sites, and there's really no surefire way to tell whose car those seats came from. Getting the police involved would work in an ideal world, but in the real world, the police aren't likely to give a crap. Even if you yourself recognize the seats as yours, there's really no way to prove it to anyone else.

The most you could do is get the seats back through force or theft, which would be illegal as well. Personally, if I recognized my stolen seats for sale, and were absolutely certain that they came from my car, I'd probably get some friends together and beat the shit out of the seller. However, in the eyes of the law, that would be even worse than the original theft of the seats.

I wish there were some way to track and recover stolen seats, but unfortunately there really isn't. That's why these seats get stolen so frequently to begin with.

 

Ok, I was writing about this a moment ago and my computer crashed (gotta love work networks), anyway. As far as the police searching in your car, if the laws are anything like maritime law, you can look anywhere that is in plain sight if you are stopped, which as I understand it includes pretty much the entire inside of the car. Now add on top of that some probable cause or at least reasonable suspicion at having 2 S2000 seats in a Civic and you could make some real trouble for someone at a traffic stop. Refusal to allow someone to search areas not covered is not in and of itself sufficient to generate reasonable suspicion, but it can contribute to it.

All of this is dependent of course upon LE caring enough about it, which it is fairly apparent that they do not.

Now I am not advocating that LE behave as a bunch of jack-booted thugs. I know from personal experience that it is possible to be polite and still accomplish a lot.

I am not certain about the law, could someone tell us if you cannot prove you legally obtained the seats, can it then be assumed that they are stolen and be siezed? Assuming that they are not in an S2000 of course. It's not as if we are talkng about someone buying boot cover here, if someone spent spends several thousand dollars on seats, they should have a receipt of some kind.

New seats are expensive enough as CrazyPhud pointed out that the theft of them is a felony. And I think that he has another point, if we can start making it more difficult to unload them, then perhaps not so many will get stolen. But I probably live in a dream world.

 

Yep this is my point it's not about trying to stop them it's about making it so much of a hassle for them that the thieves won't try there are easier targets. It's why everyone should put in the seat locks if they can. It's not always to protect your seats but everyone else's too. Yeah the thief may cut you seats if he can't get them out but if he tries 5 or so s2000's and they all have seat locks and he gets NOTHING then eventually he'll stop it.


I think it's a good idea that everyone find a way to mark their seats in a identifying way and take pictures of it!.

If mine get stolen this is what I'm going to do, report it and the identifying marks to the police. Give them a copy of the pictures but make sure you keep a copy too. Check out every local sale in the area of s2000 seats. Hell put a classified ad in the paper saying you are looking for s2000 seats. Examine each pair. If I see my marks on a seat, heck I'll buy them on the spot with a check and immediately call my bank and stop payment on the check. If the thief complains fine I'll have the cops waiting for him when he comes to collect

There are alot of things you can do other than sit back and take it. The rules are be smart, don't do anything illegal and be safe!

 

They can't just search it because someone told them there is a stolen seat in it.

Ummm...that depends on who it is. If it's an anonymous tip, you MAY be right, but if it is a good tip from a known person, it can be enough. All you need to STOP the vehicle is reasonable suspicion, but to search the vehicle's inside, you need probable cause, which pretty much means "more than likely" Of course there is always the "plain view" doctrine that states if it is in plain view it is fair game. For instance, you pull someone over in a riced up civic cause they look suspicious or something. At the exact point of the stop, you don't have probable cause to believe there is stolen items in the car. When you approach the car, you see some black(or whatever) leather S2000 seats...hmmmmmm..... This could be probable cause because they are in plain view and Leather S2000 seats don't come in civics stock. Following me? Now you have to PROVE that they are illegal, the person does not have to prove that they ARE NOT. You can search this car. If there is any serial #'s on the seats, you may be in luck. But if not, there may be OWNER APPLIED NUMBERS that are specific to one person, like for example your last 4 digits of your SSN. If you engrave it or stitch it or whatnot into the seats, if they are ever stolen, that number can be entered into the NCIC computer than if a cop anywhere in the US runs that # you get a hit. Now a cop can ask the person where he/she got the seats, but this will not prove anything(unless they just flat out admit it), because they may have bought them thinking they were legit. But if they are stolen, you can get them for recieving stolen property, which is as bad as stealing it here in KY.

Of course, you can always just get permission to search the car, which is what 95% of cops do. It's harder than you think to tell a cop "no you can't search this car", because they are trained on how to do this stuff. Most people when it comes down to it will allow a cop to search their car.

I just hope there is more cops out there that pay attention to this stuff, but unfortunately there is not a lot that do.

I personally know, even though some of you already stated in previos posts that you hate cops, that I , as a cop, would help anyone of you fellow S2000 owners if I ever could. Maybe some of you should stop hating on ALL cops, cause some on this board would bend over backwards to help other members, like me.

hope this helps some understand a little better.

Mike