S2000 Stolen
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S2000 Stolen
Hi all, long time lurker. My 2005 GPW s2000 was stolen from the IAH parking garage sometime Sunday, 4/26. The airport or HPD have no record of the car being towed and airport protocol is to record all license plate numbers every night to assist people in locating their car if they forgot where the parked it. According to the airport parking authority, my license plate number was never recorded. the car was stock, other than a forbidden mugen replica hardtop and some plastic splitters. I had the tan interior, so I would think they would be after my seats, but I have the seat locks installed, so good luck to them. Here is a pic of the car. If anyone has any information or sees a hardtop and/or tan interior pop up on here or H-I, please let me know.
2005 GPW s2000
2005 GPW s2000
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From: houston
Nothing is going to stop them if they really want the car. Just keep insurance on it and don't make yourself a easy target is all you can do
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Sorry for the delay all; public accounting is a busy job. This has been the craziest experience in my life.
Overview = car recovered (physical appearance altered and re-VINed), but then stolen again from the impound lot never to be seen again.
Thoughts and advice - No matter how careful and how many theft deterrent devices you have (e.g. seat-locks, locking hardtop locks, alarm), if they want your car, they will take it. My advice would be to have multiple GPS-type devices in your car because in Houston, both HPD and Harris County Sheriffs don't care about recovering your car unless it is an easy process.
Story - HPD tried to review video footage from the IAH Terminal C garage exits (i.e. the ONLY video cameras in the garage not focused on the elevators. After 2 days of reviewing the footage of one exit, all footage for all exits was purged from the video surveillance system. Sadly I had to give HPD the idea that the car may be down in the Barro by now. They checked with border authorities, but no luck. After 40 days, my insurance company finally passed me to the total loss dept for payout since no progress was made by HPD. On the morning of the day that I was to receive the payoff quote, the car was recovered from (shocker) Stuebner Airline/Veterans Memorial. The current "owner" illegally parked the car in their apartment complex and got towed. Upon processing at the impound lot near 1960 and Aldine Westfield, the employee could not read the VIN plate as it was black with not good contrasting letters. The thieves did not do anything about the VIN in the factory windshield, which was the VIN input into the vehicle recovery database. However, the employee also input the paper plate info into the system, so both me and the new "owner" were notified of the tow. That's right, there was a paper plate on it as it was resold by a certain auto dealership in Katy named after a pachyderm. So I get there first, did not recognize the car as the thieves removed anything they could sell (factory rims, mugen hardtop, factory spoiler and ground effects, splitters, factory seats) and replaced some of them with cheap aftermarket parts so that I would not recognize it if the car pulled up next to me at a light. I confirmed the car was mine as my key opened the doors and trunk. The method of theft was tow away and swap the CPU and ignition as my key would not fit in the ignition and a CPU was just sitting on the driver's side floor board. Depressed at the state the car was in, I notified my insurance company that they could come get it as it was likely totaled since it would cost a lot to get it back to its original state.
While I was at the lot, the other party called up asking about the car. The gung-ho impound lot lady pumped them for information that day and during the week waiting for HPD to come out and further the investigation. The person who called did not speak english well and had someone speaking for him after a few minutes. They claimed that they bought the car salvaged 6 months ago and that it was insured by the guy's uncle. The impound lady unwittingly informed the new "owner" that HPD was scheduled to be out there on the following Monday and that they would not be able to retrieve the car until they were done. As alluded to earlier, they stole the car early Sunday morning; someone snuck in on foot in the dark and waited in the car until a tow truck came in opening the vehicle gate. Once the tow truck was clear of the gate, my car started and drove out of there like a bat out of hell all caught on camera (like it mattered).
I informed my insurance company that the car was stolen again and that I just wanted to get paid. I got a fair payout and most of the value for my aftermarket parts since I carried that coverage. Since then, the car has not been recovered and my insurance company is taking action against the impound lot for failure to secure the vehicle.
Overview = car recovered (physical appearance altered and re-VINed), but then stolen again from the impound lot never to be seen again.
Thoughts and advice - No matter how careful and how many theft deterrent devices you have (e.g. seat-locks, locking hardtop locks, alarm), if they want your car, they will take it. My advice would be to have multiple GPS-type devices in your car because in Houston, both HPD and Harris County Sheriffs don't care about recovering your car unless it is an easy process.
Story - HPD tried to review video footage from the IAH Terminal C garage exits (i.e. the ONLY video cameras in the garage not focused on the elevators. After 2 days of reviewing the footage of one exit, all footage for all exits was purged from the video surveillance system. Sadly I had to give HPD the idea that the car may be down in the Barro by now. They checked with border authorities, but no luck. After 40 days, my insurance company finally passed me to the total loss dept for payout since no progress was made by HPD. On the morning of the day that I was to receive the payoff quote, the car was recovered from (shocker) Stuebner Airline/Veterans Memorial. The current "owner" illegally parked the car in their apartment complex and got towed. Upon processing at the impound lot near 1960 and Aldine Westfield, the employee could not read the VIN plate as it was black with not good contrasting letters. The thieves did not do anything about the VIN in the factory windshield, which was the VIN input into the vehicle recovery database. However, the employee also input the paper plate info into the system, so both me and the new "owner" were notified of the tow. That's right, there was a paper plate on it as it was resold by a certain auto dealership in Katy named after a pachyderm. So I get there first, did not recognize the car as the thieves removed anything they could sell (factory rims, mugen hardtop, factory spoiler and ground effects, splitters, factory seats) and replaced some of them with cheap aftermarket parts so that I would not recognize it if the car pulled up next to me at a light. I confirmed the car was mine as my key opened the doors and trunk. The method of theft was tow away and swap the CPU and ignition as my key would not fit in the ignition and a CPU was just sitting on the driver's side floor board. Depressed at the state the car was in, I notified my insurance company that they could come get it as it was likely totaled since it would cost a lot to get it back to its original state.
While I was at the lot, the other party called up asking about the car. The gung-ho impound lot lady pumped them for information that day and during the week waiting for HPD to come out and further the investigation. The person who called did not speak english well and had someone speaking for him after a few minutes. They claimed that they bought the car salvaged 6 months ago and that it was insured by the guy's uncle. The impound lady unwittingly informed the new "owner" that HPD was scheduled to be out there on the following Monday and that they would not be able to retrieve the car until they were done. As alluded to earlier, they stole the car early Sunday morning; someone snuck in on foot in the dark and waited in the car until a tow truck came in opening the vehicle gate. Once the tow truck was clear of the gate, my car started and drove out of there like a bat out of hell all caught on camera (like it mattered).
I informed my insurance company that the car was stolen again and that I just wanted to get paid. I got a fair payout and most of the value for my aftermarket parts since I carried that coverage. Since then, the car has not been recovered and my insurance company is taking action against the impound lot for failure to secure the vehicle.
