If there’s one place that you likely feel safe leaving your car it’s in your own locked garage. So imagine the shock you’d feel if you came home to find your beloved sports car violated. Eric Oh says that’s exactly what happened to his Honda S2000; he says thieves broke into his garage in Mountain View, California by creating a person-sized hole in the wall, and that they then took several valuable parts and tools. Now Oh is hoping the enthusiast community can help get the parts back and, if nothing else, make it nearly impossible to sell some of those stolen items on the second-hand market.
After The Autopian read Oh’s post below on the STRICTLY Rays / Volk / Advan Discussion/Owners/Marketplace Facebook page (the same post that the California resident posted to other groups and that has been making the rounds on the internet), we reached out to him via Facebook Messenger. Oh described what happened, saying that on February 5th he went to bed with plans to drive his blue Honda S2000 CR the next day. When he opened up the garage door his world was dramatically different.
Thieves, Oh says, had created a hole through the wall of his garage and stolen his S2000’s hardtop, his Club Racer seats, his Volk Racing TE37 Saga wheels, and several tools.
“They also ripped through my boxes and stole a bunch of tools… probably about 3k in tools / random items,” he said.
According to Oh, authorities have some evidence to go on, and gave him some tips that could lead to finding his property.
“Police took a report, said to look for stolen goods listed, and asked for info on things that would make the items identifiable. Thieves also left a glove and footprints so they took those as evidence but no follow-up back from that yet,” he continued.
One of the identifiable marks on the parts is the serial numbers on the wheels. Sadly, the seats and hardtop may prove impossible to track.
Nevertheless, Oh says he’s hopeful that anyone who might see any of these items pop up for sale will contact him so that he can collaborate with law enforcement.
This is far from the first time that a crime like this has happened in the Bay Area. Just last month, Stanford Police alerted residents to a slew of automotive burglaries. “Perpetrators have stolen wheels (tires & rims), catalytic converters, hybrid batteries, hoods and bumpers from mostly Toyota automobiles,”
This isn’t even the first Honda sports car targeted by thieves in the last month, Eric Oh told us, mentioning a similar case to his involving a yellow Honda Civic Type R. On February 2nd, the owner of that car, Miguel Melendrez, of Sunnyvale, California, posted about the theft on Instagram. This Civic was a fully customized ride that evidently drew the wrong kind of attention in the end.
Seven days later, Melendrez reported on Instagram that his car was finally found but not before criminals completely stripped it.
View this post on Instagram
The incident appears to have truly crushed his enthusiasm. “Unfortunately, the car was found completely stripped. I’ll be deleting this page in the upcoming days. I’m really done with the car scene. Thank you all for your support. To the thieves, I hope you get your karma back.” he said in a post. (His Instagram page remains up as of this writing).
Bay Area Crime
Crime in the Bay Area has been a serious issue for years now, and ramped up during the pandemic. According to a report from local Fox affiliate KTUV, car theft in Oakland was up 44% during 2023 when compared to 2022, though the site mentions that some of this may be due to the Kia-Hyundai theft issue, as car crime is up around the country.
On the positive side, officials in San Francisco said in December that car break-ins (i.e. theft of possessions inside parked cars) were down 50% when compared to 2022. Speaking to CBS News, Mayor London Breed said in December of 2023: “Our police officers and our prosecutors have been doing incredible work tackling the difficult challenge of disrupting auto burglaries… We will remain focused and we will continue to give our officers the tools they need to do this work effectively across our entire city.”
This rise in car thefts and drop in burglaries/break-ins matches reports from other sources on both San Francisco and San Jose.
Clearly, there’s still work to do. In a recent example, shown above, local law enforcement from the San Pablo Police Department arrested 24 people over the last week. It also recovered six stolen cars. In one of those vehicles, it found bolt cutters, a cash drawer, gloves, a mask, and a fake firearm.
Sadly, police didn’t also find some Volk wheels and a pair of S2000 seats. If you see anything please contact Eric or the local authorities.
You wouldn’t believe how many houses are out there … That are built to current building code and safe … But you could break into them with nothing more than a utility knife cutting right through the wall.
David Tracy’s theft deterrent scheme is starting to make a whole lot of sense to me.
I love how the cops humored this guy. They took glove and foot prints.
You think they’re going to run those through the FBI’s database of non-evidence?
The glove will be valuable for the defence in the courtroom when it doesn’t fit the suspect.
Got any promising…leads? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvT_VOJaXvs
Time for Mark Rober to bring back those glitter bombs. He should sell them commercially or as part of a crunch labs kit.
California doesn’t let civilians file criminal complaints in court like other states do.
Back when I lived in Vegas (a long, long time ago) there was a string of home burglaries similar to this – thieves would punch a hole thru the stucco & drywall between studs and then let themselves out the front door (with a bunch of the homeowner’s loot).
“Hole in the Wall Gang”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8Pku1zXM5g
Such a good movie. The Wet Bandits are still his “best gang” though =D
That sucks, but man, I have seen chicken coops more robust than that garage wall. My GF watches loads of those millionaire property bastards and house rebuild shows, and it never ceases to amaze me how gimcrack the construction is on some US houses, especially in California it seems. 2 layers of drywall and some paint ain’t gonna keep tweakers out…
As a Californian working for a Texas based company, you should get a load of some of the things they share on our Slack. When I was a kid, we moved to Atlanta where we learned that in the 1970s, general contractors didn’t require any kind of licensing and home inspections as part of the building permit process were pretty much non-existent.
Someone broke in to a performance oriented shop near my parents house outside of Raleigh, NC by cutting a hole in the side of the metal building with a sawzall and climbing in that way. Disgusting what people will do just to take others property. I wish only the worst for the thieves.
Some of you may saw on Discord about my situation with the Chevy Volt left on bricks in Detroit. Tires and wheels were stolen, bumper and fender damaged, brakes bent since the bricks couldn’t hold the vehicle. Here is the timeline of the whole story
The thief stole more wheels the same night and more information was available to help the police. Now we are just waiting to hear back to see what are the next steps. Car is at the dealer waiting for parts.
This is been a nightmare since I never got a car vandalized, it hurts your emotions specially if you take pride of your vehicles.
As a person who has had a car stolen from in front of their house and never recovered, I feel for you Eric. Please, please, don’t give up on the scene. It will take time for the wound to heal. We will be here when you are ready to return.
That is what you get for voting the Democrat politicians…and for living in California that has been ruined lately by the Democrat politicians who care more about gender ideology, socialism, vaccines, green agenda, and such that have no real-world benefit.
I know: I lived in San Francisco for a year and half in the early aughts. I saw the writing on the wall for California before fleeing the state.
That’s bait.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZUoCpx8jag
Username really checks out for this one…
Best response
Hey would you look at that. Both democrats and republicans voted for prop 47! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_California_Proposition_47
See ya!
Zombie Nixon wants his LAWN ORDER talking points back
Eric the Viking likes Lawn Order! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVYug8cHLIM
You know, I’m pretty lax on moderation here, but something has been bugging me lately. Some people who read this site, people who presumably read our stories, including mine, like to whine about “gender ideology.” Are you not aware that this site is unapologetically pro-trans?
First, my existence isn’t an “ideology,” but ok. Second, how do you folks logic that out?
I recently met a “fan” who told me that he reads everything I write. Then, immediately after, he called me a man and told me to get mental help. That was weird, and then I ran across another so-called fan who said more or less the same thing. I’ve been having trouble grappling with that ever since. Why read someone’s work when you clearly have no respect for them?
I’m beginning to think it’s not me who should sign up into a mental hospital.
Moderation-wise, I obviously don’t miss the bot accounts that used to roam the Autopian’s comment section, but I did enjoy the pants off your manual edits of their comments.
You fucking rock. The people giving you flack are shit people. Keep living your best life. Love your work, keep it coming.
Meeting you and off-roading at Holly Oaks was a treat. You live your best life, openly and honestly and I respect that very much. It is a shame that there are people who see the need to dictate how someone else lives their lives because it has no bearing on them whatsoever.
It’s almost like *they* have a…gender ideology.
This kind of person is one who only has One Thing to say, and they say it everywhere, in response to everything.
Well, once again you’ve written the dumbest thing I’ve read in a given day.
I feel stupider after reading this.
The photo shows the car on cinder blocks, not bricks. Neither choice is appropriate for this application but cinder blocks are generally held to be the worse of the two for the greater likelihood of sudden collapse. These are bricks:
https://live.staticflickr.com/2819/9399174487_dd0329d052_c.jpg
This was the result of me needing more wheels and tires in the middle of a Lemons race about 100 miles from home after the race car threw one. Still not a great idea.
*Concrete masonry units. Cinder blocks hadn’t been manufactured for decades.
/Pedant
A very good reason to add a motion activated security camera or three into your garage.
Unless you catch vehicle plates, it ends up serving no purpose other than pissing you off further when the police do nothing to catch them. In the instances I mentioned below, local enforcement had plates on camera and still never caught them (apparently a common thing to use expired, stolen or fake plates now). If nobody is hurt, they do not care to spend resources they already don’t have to help you track down property.
More to notify you as the break in is happening so you can call the cops to catch them in the act.
If you so happen to be in one of the slim margins where that would happen, that would be nice….however, both of the instances I’ve been through with this have been at 3am when they were caught on building cameras, and I was sound asleep. Even if one was awake, most of these thefts take place quicker than when the officer would be able to respond. Honestly, I think a dash cam would only carry weight as a deterrent if those people see it and are scared of it – but as we’ve seen with Teslas that have sentry mode, not even that seems to deter thieves or hit and run accidents (sadly, although the latter you can at least catch a plate and pursue their insurance, if they have it).
In my humble opinion, the best defense is parking in a location that’s at least fairly actively monitored by a human being, and having good insurance coverage. These people aren’t getting caught or charged nearly enough, so it will continue until they are.
YMMV. I’ve had the police respond quickly enough to catch people acting suspiciously. In one case it was a ratty looking guy looking into a neighbors window. The response was pretty overwhelming too – three cars with lights on. I think it took them under 3 minutes to get there.
That was a while ago though. Dunno how it would go down now.
In my humble opinion, the best defense is parking in a location that’s at least fairly actively monitored by a human being, and having good insurance coverage.
A good guard dog works too.
Not giving advice or anything, and I sympathize with the victims of these misadventures, but if there’s one thing I don’t do, it’s publishing pics of my car in any identifiable way.
I know it’s quite difficult when most forums are meant for sharing, but the Civic above is published with its plates clearly showing (and who knows if the poster ever deleted the geotags from the pics before posting).
Even for anyone not having access to DMV records (if ads are to be trusted – it’s a less than a $100 procedure to get a name and address from plates) – plate readers are not a Police-only thing.
Every repo place and their brother has them, and they don’t even have to sit there waiting and eating donuts – they can put this on automatic search just like a cctv camera (or just do plate retrieval from CCTV footage), and then review the logs to establish movement patterns.
And that is with just what goes through my mind, which is far from the mind of a professional thief.
Is his garage made out of cardboard? It looks like the thieves simply kicked in the wall, or used trained squirrels.
Vinyl siding, OSB, then wallboard would be my guess. I don’t want to publicly give details, but a bit of thought can get you there fairly quietly.
Having suffered a break in years ago, I sympathize: the sense of violation is maddening
If exterior was a stucco finish then it’s just fiber board on the outside with a really thin layer of textured coating. Basically, dense styrofoam with a cement skim coat. A couple swing s of a hammer and you’re through as long as you don’t hit a stud.
Mine is corrugated steel, some power tools and you can cut your way right in. Honestly, not like cinder block or brick are going to be much hindrance to anyone suitably motivated either
That’s what I was thinking too. Shouldn’t there be studs no more than 16″ apart?
Studs can be up to 24″ apart in some situations.
A wise architect once told me–when you can’t walk between wall studs spaced at 16″ on center, you need to skip the donuts.
I went through this first three years ago with a set of wheels stolen off of my project car, and then again in November where they actually destroyed a good chunk of the interior of my Lexus trying to find the wheel lock key (subsequently finding it and leaving the car on milk crates). Both incidents happened in a controlled access garage.
Simple fact is, if there’s no loss of life, injury or major property damage, the police do not care. They will give you a police report number and tell you to take it up with your insurance. The only counter to these issues is to increase patrols, and with most precincts understaffed, I don’t see that happening any time soon.
A few years ago some friends of mine had their house get broken into. At first, the police came out and seemed very willing to investigate but the second they told the police that no guns or weapons were stolen and it was just electronics and stuff like that, the police immidately stopped caring and didn’t do anything more than take down their report and leave.
My friend even found his laptop for sale on FB marketplace and sent the link to the police and even that couldn’t get them do to anything. All they told him was “Yeah, we don’t recommend you try and go get it or anything. Just let your insurance handle it and move on”
This is almost exactly what happened with my carbon fiber road bike. I showed them the FB marketplace link and they said “well we called him and he said he got it from a friend who got it at a storage unit auction, so now it’s a he said/you said situation.” This was after describing numerous extremely particular and peculiar details to him.
Suffice it to say the police did absolutely nothing and the thief/thieves got away with it.
When the guy stole my motorcycle, they didn’t file any charges and he almost walked on a technicality. I had to drop what I was going and go to a probable cause hearing downtown.
Buddy had his motorcycle stolen from his back yard, he didn’t notice for a few days and then reported it, two weeks later the cops tell him it’s in impound. Turns out the rocket surgeon who stole it got pulled over that night for driving without a helmet, he went to pick it up but as the plates were missing he had to get it towed out and pay three weeks of fees which was almost the value of the bike. Fast forward a few months and he goes to renew his licence before driving across Canada and the USA and it turns out the guy who got pulled over used the registration and paperwork on the bike to claim he was the owner. so my buddy has a helmet ticket, some moving violation the guy got and late fees. He was told he had been convicted as he never appeared in court but could appeal, but as he was leaving two days later he had to pay about $1500 in fines that were not his.
If you’re not “cop tribe” they won’t do squat. Gun nut? We got’choo, fam. Cyclist? Nah, whatever.
So you’re saying the secret to getting the police to track down your stolen property is to leave guns all around things in case they get stolen? /s
This is America, the solution is ALWAYS more guns. It’s like MIATA, but for any problem that doesn’t involve a car choice.
/s….. maybe?
I know someone who had a small signal cannon stolen off his yacht, was a family heirloom, his great-grandfather had had it cast with his own coat of arms. The guy found it a year later in an auction catalog in California, the local police went as far as calling the auction house, learned it was sold to a buyer in Australia, then told him he was on his own because they weren’t getting involved in anything international over that
Thanks for sending me down a signal cannon rabbit hole. They are surprisingly “affordable” and readily available. I guess I know what’s going on my Christmas list this year!
We should just go back to cowboy justice. When you find your stolen stuff on FB marketplace, get a posse together and go string up the horse thieves yourself. Just need some badges, and a sh!tload of dimes.
Hi Bob! Bye Bob!
It’s amazing how much you can reduce crime when you allow the police to do their jobs and require the DA to do their job. The decrease by 50% is great but it never would have gotten that bad if liberals didn’t stop enforcement of all laws short of murder and crimes against themselves.
“car crime is up around the country”
Also, Billings, Montana is in the top 10 cities nationwide for auto theft rate.
Must be the liberal government.
Yes because if 1 car is stolen in Billings it translates into 20,000 in LA. Because statistics are lies. 2 cars stolen in Billings translates to a 100% increase in theft. California is more lawless than the 1800s. They allow crap to go uncontrolled like inflation only to do minor stuff to later show improvement.
For example Trunps last year average gas prices were around $2.25 a gallon. Biden took over did many stupid thing then gas was over $5.00 a gallon. Them after a year the prices reduced to today’s average of $4.75 a gallon. Then the administration and the media heralds him for brown gas prices less than a dollar. And ignorant people believe this.
117,000 people live in Billings, Montana. I am not completely sure, but I really don’t think 2.34 Billion people live in LA.
Gas was cheap because no one was driving (height of the pandemic) and the fuel/gas industry in the U.S. collapsed and many oil extraction companies literally went out of business. It is not profitable to extract oil shales when prices are low, for example. Once everyone started driving again, there was a huge demand and fewer companies to satisfy that demand. Also simultaneously it was very cheap to get money (interest rates 0%), so prices skyrocketed.
But it really seems as if you don’t actually care about objectively looking at things by saying things like “California is more lawless than the 1800s”, which is a common claim I’ve seen political talking heads make.
Actually it seems like you don’t want to look at things realistically. So I agree to disagree. That’s what I did when I lived in California. But really DAs run on the platform we won’t prosecute, they win, they don’t prosecute, they get sued for not prosecuting sometimes get reelected for not prosecuting and you haven’t any recollection of the situation? Yes I can’t talk or reason with anyone that won’t accept what is being reported even by the liberal media so is better not to talk than argue on a site not meant for politics. Have a great day.
It’s my favorite when people agree to disagree after they’re shown to have a poor logical argument. Definitely is a good time to disengage, though, that part you got right.
And for some reason, it’s often the same people that seem to feel the need to inject politics into just about every discussion. Weird how that Venn diagram works.
The National average gas price is $3.26/gal. today.
So I am paying $3.65 up 40 cents a week still over a $1 a week more. So $20 a tank a week 52 weeks. $1,040 a year just in gas. Food is more energy is more only thing not more paychecks.
Ignorant people believe the president has full control over gasoline prices…
True but the president and his party control the stuff that affects the economy. So gas food energy life is more. But paychecks aren’t. Families are paying $10,000 more a year. So yea don’t control gas. Of course shutting down ALL new energy weels and sources does cause everyone to bend over.
.
“ALL new energy weels and sources does cause everyone to bend over.”
This is pretty much the direct opposite of reality. We’re producing shitloads and shitloads.
Reuters, Feb 6: “In December, U.S. crude oil production was estimated to have reached a record high of 13.3 million bpd. ”
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/growth-us-crude-production-slow-sharply-2024-eia-says-2024-02-06/
Here’s the thing though. Oil companies don’t want to just keep drilling wells and pumping oil because eventually that produces a glut, which lowers prices, which lowers their profit.
True but as wells run dry they need to bring new ones online. Not possible when the administration stops bidding and drilling of previous areas open. It also keeps billions from the government who just keep spending, both parties, but now buying on credit instead of cash.
It’s a bit more complex than that, especially 2021-2023 or so. The desire to avoid a glut is part of it, but also the fracking boom had already started to wind down. Even before the pandemic the industry had seen overall negative returns on investment. Add in high interest rates and investors spooked by negative prices in 2020, and getting the capital to turn up production was a challenge. Especially combined with people basically catching up on a couple years of delayed travel plans.
You don’t know about the gas price dial they have on the desk in the Oval Office? /s
The average gas price in the US today is $3.26 per Forbes magazine.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/gas-prices-by-state/
Yes and 2 years ago it was $2.25. And 1 year ago it was over $4.25. Those are facts you want to ignore.
Two years ago was 2022.
You stated: “Them after a year the prices reduced to today’s average of $4.75 a gallon”
I did not ignore anything. I read everything you wrote and corrected one piece of misinformation with the actual price of gas today and cited a reliable source for my information.
If you think presidents control gas prices you really don’t understand our economic system.
There’s not much sense in using facts. That’s clearly a person that already has their mind made up, and has their own “sources”. Just ignore.
“Ignore” is definitely the best approach with that guy.
If you yell it loud enough and often enough it becomes the truth. True story.
A rate in this case means the chance your car gets stolen. It has no relation with how many cars around you get stolen.
I’m your worst liberal nightmare and I’d happily kick the thieve’s jewels up into their larnyx while pistol whipping them as I send them to San Quentin.
You can take your “liberals stop enforcement” blather and go pound sand dude.
All this Bay Area crime is happening under the “tough on crime” DA who was elected after the previous, reform-minded one was recalled. (SF cops basically went on strike when the reform guy was elected.)
Crime would go down even further if we had police that actually cared to do their jobs.
Bullshit. I live in a GOP stronghold state and my buddy had two crxs stolen and stripped that were track prepped. My other friends 6 cylinder accord was stolen and stripped as well. Stop perpetuating the lies that the cops care about stolen cars cause they don’t
Scum of the earth.