I didn't post this when it happened because I've been pissed off, dealing with insurance and trying to forget about it when I could but the Tuesday after Christmas someone stole my car trailer, with my Spec. Miata and a ton of tools, spares and wheels and tires in out of my driveway in Albuquerque New Mexico.
If you run across someone selling a toolbox that looks like this.
A trailer that looks like this.
or a Miata that looks like this.
Please let me know.
My flat deck disappeared at 3:00 Tuesday morning. Officer Bob found it Thursday morning, parked with the plate still on it, front portion spray bombed black, so I have my trailer back.
Don't lose hope, but if that happens again, to your replacement, don't wait. Plaster that sucker over every form of internet you can think of. Buddy of mine lost his homebuilt bike powered 7 autocrosser and trailer, and it showed up on the internet about 12 years later, after the original thief died and his lover advertised it on Kijiji. A thousand miles from here. Less than six hours from advertising to Gord knowing about it through a network of sports car clubs, and yelling at cops to do something about it.
Thieves need their hands cut off like in the old times, no if's, but's or maybe's...... berkeleying scum of the earth....
If it ain't yours don't berkeleying touch it!
This sucks man, I hope you get it back.
In reply to APEowner : I'm sorry for your loss. That really hurts. Hopefully it will be recovered quickly with no damage. But try to think positive . What can you learn from this. ?
Who's fault is it? Well first the thief. But what did you contribute to it's loss. Be objective. ( I don't know, and I'm not trying to offend but) was it properly locked up? Are you in a residential neighborhood or rural? Behind a locked & gated fence or quickly accessible from the street? Was the hitch locked? What sort of crime rate is in your area?
Again I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. The thief is the guilty party here but presumably you won't let this ruin your interest in motor sports. So you'll replace it. But what can you do different so it doesn't happen again?
If the crime rate is high, lean on your local politicians to get better policing. This is a case of the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Politicians want to lower taxes so they cut corners and maybe, maybe they cut too much out of the police budget. Maybe the budget is fine but the police aren't doing a good job? Or maybe they are all busy trying to give revenue generating tickets.
In reply to frenchyd :
Trailers walk away to easy. I have a lock on mine and a vehicle is always parked in the way.
frenchyd said:In reply to APEowner : I'm sorry for your loss. That really hurts. Hopefully it will be recovered quickly with no damage. But try to think positive . What can you learn from this. ?
Who's fault is it? Well first the thief. But what did you contribute to it's loss. Be objective. ( I don't know, and I'm not trying to offend but) was it properly locked up? Are you in a residential neighborhood or rural? Behind a locked & gated fence or quickly accessible from the street? Was the hitch locked? What sort of crime rate is in your area?
Again I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. The thief is the guilty party here but presumably you won't let this ruin your interest in motor sports. So you'll replace it. But what can you do different so it doesn't happen again?
If the crime rate is high, lean on your local politicians to get better policing. This is a case of the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Politicians want to lower taxes so they cut corners and maybe, maybe they cut too much out of the police budget. Maybe the budget is fine but the police aren't doing a good job? Or maybe they are all busy trying to give revenue generating tickets.
Frenchy - Those are all good questions and the answers to some of them are part of why I'm so pissed off at the theft.
There are definietly things that I could have done to either prevent the theft or make it less painfull. For example, there's a trailer alarm system sitting on my parts washer waiting for me to finish the design and installation and adding insurance to the car that was in the trailer has been on my to do list for a while. There are only so many hours in the day and since I work for 10 of them most days stuff like that can slip down the priority list.
Property crime is a big issue in all of Albuquerque and ther are a lot of factors that contribute to that problem. I'm not going to go into them becasue that's a complicated topic that requires some discussion of politics. Sufice it to say that I make sure I vote for people that I think will help correct the problems and I spend some volounteer time and make financail contributions with organizations that attempt to address some of the root causes..
As far as the neighborhood is concerned. I live in one of the nicer neighbohoods in Albuquerque but that's only slightly helpful. There are thefts here becasue that's were the good stuff is.
So sorry, man. Here's praying it comes back soon and in one piece.
I remember living in L.A. it was just assumed that whatever you left in your car would be gone the next morning. Now I live in Harrisburg PA and I leave my keys in the truck. The worst that has happened here was some kids came through one night and everyone had the change stolen from their cup holders and ash trays. They caught the kids trying to buy weed from an undercover cop with a bag full of change the next day wearing the same jackets that were seen on about 15 doorbell cameras.
In reply to APEowner :
It would be silly of me to tell you what to do in your neighborhood. Except to say if you don't like the way things are and think you can do better please consider running for office. Good ideas or policies can come from a variety of sources and you might have the best ones.
Local elections aren't typically party based. I paid my $2 fee and ran for Mayor. Likely would have won too if I hadn't met the other candidate and agreed with her on almost everything. So I stopped campaigning.
When I announced a neighbor offered to buy some signs and another neighbor bought more. So my total cost was the $2. And a couple of weekends campaigning.
This is a note to anyone reading this forum.
Get a lock for your trailer. Not the cheap one they sell at auto parts stores or home supply stores.
Consider one of these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMu_GnNnnBE
Not cheap but how much money do you have in your trailer and contents.
Having the skills I built a similar version of this lock.
I still have to make some changes to the trailer as the coupler is only bolted to the trailer (The trailer is aluminum.)
Plaster that all over the place. Last trailer i saw stolen near me was from a tactical equipment company. Pretty sure they thought they were getting a trailer full of gun parts and bulletproof vests. The county recovered it within a week and the shop got a bunch of free neat drug paraphernalia. Keep positive and make sure the surrounding counties know it's missing. It'll be found somewhere and hopefully with most stuff in tact. Pawn shops will be weary of buying an entire toolbox, but I'd be checking those as well.
Best of luck.
the Trailer for my boat has an extendable tongue, I made it very hard to steal by removing it and taking it away to my basement. I then put one of those locks in the hole that holds the ball in on type 2/3 hitches so they cannot just slide a tube in and tow it away.
OP, really sorry to hear this.
Does anyone make a device that is basically a really cheap cell phone that can be hidden in a trailer? Trailer gets stolen, turn on GPS tracking, find it. Make it charge off the light/brake power to the trailer and then also give it a battery that lasts a few weeks sending out a GPS update every 5 minutes or whatever.
I was even thinking about making big stickers that just SAY that the trailer is equipped with hidden GPS trackers and silent alarms and selling them to people to put on their trailers right by the hitch.
"Go ahead, steal me, and bring the cops right to where you part out all your other stolen trailers."
They have these for dogs. Seems like it would be easy to hide such a thing on basically any trailer or other piece of valuable equipment.
Thanks all for the support.
The alarm I'm building has a motion detector and sounds an alarm and locks the electric brakes when activated. There are GPS trackers available but they all have subscription fees. If you knew for sure that your trailer would be stolen it would be well worth the money. Since most trailers aren't it's a little more difficult of a decision.
Maybe the new trailer should have Stinky's Diaper Service, or Paul's Pet Poop Cleanup livery so no one will want it.
Frenchy - I work for a national laboratory that receives a significant amount of money through federal and state funding. As a result I can't really get involved in politics. I have thought about running for public office when I retire however. In the mean time I have a lot of confidence in quite a few of the folks currently in office.
I work for an organization that had a large refrigerated cooler, think walk-in 10 x 12, mounted on a trailer. One morning at 2:00 am you see a pickup pull up to a locked gate, passenger gets out and cuts the lock off of the gate. While he is walking to the trailer, the driver backs the truck in, walker cuts the lock off of the trailer and connects the trailer to the truck. At 2:06 they were pulling out of the driveway. It doesn't take that long if you know what you're doing.
In South Carolina trailers are not required to be registered, so it looked to be a loss. Less than a week later, the trailer and cooler were recovered together. A credit to some decent security cameras. We have since installed a gps tracker, i'm not sure of the monthly cost. Cameras are pretty inexpensive now, set them for motion detection and get an email or text when it goes off. A couple of the guys that I work with have the Blink wireless cams and the hold a charge well. Not a recommendation on my part, just an observation. Trail cameras can be effective as well, at least for evidence collection. Use a horn off of a burglar alarm, usually 12 Vdc, as they are painfully loud.
A logo-ed trailer is easier to spot and track.
Having your stuff stolen makes a person angry.
So, your car looked familiar to me. I was sure I had seen it on a FB group within the last few days. I found it, and I'm MOSTLY sure it's not yours, but probably worth looking it over. Doesn't match: No HT, no cage, no decals or signs of recent removal, spoiler. Matches: Slightly lighter shade on the nose, rocker stripe stops at the door, same approximate condition. Offered as a "track car". I really think what was triggering my memory was the front/rear paint mismatch and partial rocker strip. Anyways, here it is:
FB ad: not likely, but your car?
This reminds me of a call I had to make to a local electric company. It went something like this: Me: Hi, is this XXXXXXX electric company? Office Manager: Yes it is. Me: Hi, this is (Kazoospec) from the Prosecutor's Office, I'm calling about your stolen trailer. Her: Oh, did you guys find it?!??!? Me: Yes. Now, do you want the good news or the bad news first? Her: Well . . . let's start with the good news. Me: OK, well, we've recovered your trailer and it's basically intact. You can call the Sheriff's Department to make arrangements to pick it up. Her: Well then what could be the bad news? Me: Well, your trailer was being used to rustle pigs. Her: Um, OK? Me: The Sheriff's Department was able to catch the thief, but there was a high speed pursuit, involving your trailer . . . which was full of pigs at the time. Her : Um, is there more? Me: Well, I don't know how to put this delicately, but bad things happen to the digestive tract of pigs when they are involved in a high vehicle chases. My deputies are telling me you might not want it back . . .
In reply to APEowner :
On the GPS tracker thing and monthly subscription, just thinking out loud here, could you buy the unit, but not activate the service until the trailer goes missing?
Edit; Another thought, would a data logger on a race car be able to serve the same purpose? I know nothing about them but I assume they have GPS on them.
In reply to APEowner :
Having attended a fair number of meetings, Endured is more accurate, When I found someone who actually agreed with me on most issues and was better qualified I was glad to step down and stop campaigning.
Campaigning is bad enough, you politely listen to some decent citizens but a seemingly large percent of them are just wacky. ( even if they agree with me ).
You wonder how they passed civics class. One person actually thought if I was Mayor I had the ability to order criminals shot. Shoot to kill he said. This because a lawn chair was missing.
Public service is just that. A service you provide to your fellow citizens. The pay isn't great. It started out to be about $12 /hr if the meeting ran as scheduled ( most run long) and you ignore the time spent dealing with the public calling you all hours of the night and day.
Stampie (FS) said:In reply to frenchyd :
Trailers walk away to easy. I have a lock on mine and a vehicle is always parked in the way.
Mine has a beefy tongue lock, security cameras pointed at it, and unless the grass in front of it is 100% dry you're getting stuck trying to pull it away. When it moves over here to my driveway it'll be blocked in every day/night
kazoospec said:So, your car looked familiar to me. I was sure I had seen it on a FB group within the last few days. I found it, and I'm MOSTLY sure it's not yours, but probably worth looking it over. Doesn't match: No HT, no cage, no decals or signs of recent removal, spoiler. Matches: Slightly lighter shade on the nose, rocker stripe stops at the door, same approximate condition. Offered as a "track car". I really think what was triggering my memory was the front/rear paint mismatch and partial rocker strip. Anyways, here it is:
FB ad: not likely, but your car?
This reminds me of a call I had to make to a local electric company. It went something like this: Me: Hi, is this XXXXXXX electric company? Office Manager: Yes it is. Me: Hi, this is (Kazoospec) from the Prosecutor's Office, I'm calling about your stolen trailer. Her: Oh, did you guys find it?!??!? Me: Yes. Now, do you want the good news or the bad news first? Her: Well . . . let's start with the good news. Me: OK, well, we've recovered your trailer and it's basically intact. You can call the Sheriff's Department to make arrangements to pick it up. Her: Well then what could be the bad news? Me: Well, your trailer was being used to rustle pigs. Her: Um, OK? Me: The Sheriff's Department was able to catch the thief, but there was a high speed pursuit, involving your trailer . . . which was full of pigs at the time. Her : Um, is there more? Me: Well, I don't know how to put this delicately, but bad things happen to the digestive tract of pigs when they are involved in a high vehicle chases. My deputies are telling me you might not want it back . . .
Thanks for posting this. That's not it but I really appreciate you taking the time to show it to me.
I also appreciate your recovered trailer story. I hope that if mine is recovered it fairs better than that! Also, you should totally introduce yourself as Kazoospec when making work calls. I've been on a bunch of multi agency calls where people were introducing themselves with their full titles and I've been sorely tempted to introduce myself as Dr Bunsen Honeydew from Muppet Labs.
I like to go by "Huge Ever-Growing Pulsating Brain that Rules From Beyond the Ultraworld."
At school, I self-identify as a Firetruck, and so far only one student addresses me as "Engine #9."
Did you ever find anything that was taken??
jfryjfry said:Did you ever find anything that was taken??
Thanks for checking in. No, so far nothing that was stolen has shown up.
On the plus side my homeowner's insurance (Encompass) has been fabulous. Prompt friendly responses, reasonable levels of paperwork and prompt payments.
The insurance company for the trailer has been less fabulous but I believe that the problems were all related to one person who is no longer associated with them. His replacement has done her best to make up for his apathy and incompetence so I'm not going to call out the company by name.
It just rubs salt in the wound when you deal with people who don't care. I'm glad that's not been the majority of your experience.
APEowner said:The insurance company for the trailer has been less fabulous but I believe that the problems were all related to one person who is no longer associated with them. His replacement has done her best to make up for his apathy and incompetence so I'm not going to call out the company by name.
If I guess, do I win? No names, but does it start with P and end with rogressive?
I have a rhino fleet tracking device on my skid steer I rent out. It was $140 for the initial device purchase then $18 a month from there. You can change the frequency settings but mine pings the skid steer every 12 hours if it's not in use, and every 15 minutes while it's moving or has ignition power. I have an app on my phone that shows the exact location.
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