Car show part thefts

[Rich]

Split from the Unobtainium thread about harder-to-find parts for DeLoreans.

I know others have had the shift ball stolen at car shows when the doors were open. So no I'm not kidding, and don't call me Shirley.

Speaking of losing stuff from an unattended car at a show, we had our D at a concours a few years ago and heard an unfortunate announcement over the public address system as we all were packing up to go home at the end of the day, "Would anyone who saw somebody remove (steal) 4 wheel caps from a Ferrari on the show field please inform the show management?" I assume the owner was away from the car when the caps were lifted.

When we can't see our car from wherever we are at a show the doors are locked closed. We've been to lots of shows with the D and haven't lost a thing.

[yellowmxwheels23]

I've been to a few shows and runs where someone leaves their top down, walks away and comes back with a shift knob missing

[Jonathan]

Nothing gone missing on the DeLorean thankfully. I do the same thing as you though and lock the doors when not in the vicinity. Or more commonly, don't leave the car unattended if I can help it. Makes for shorter stays at car shows, less coffee intake, and not much chance to see other guy's cars, but that's the trade off I guess.

I had a C class Mercedes years ago and saw two of my front emblems vanish. $29 for the replacement part and I did the second installation myself. Could have been worse... if the thief isn't prepared to snip it with a tin snip or something and puts his foot through your grill trying to get leverage to tear it off with his bare hands. I had some nice valve stem caps on that car too at one point. Like one of those way over priced sets that have a Benz logo on each one. Those walked away amazingly fast.

What's that expression? "This is why we can't have nice things?!" People suck, lol.

[sdg3205]

My father has a 1987 300zx. I love that car, as does he.

The front "Z" emblem got ripped off twice before he gave up and stopped replacing it. When they moved to AZ seasonally in 2006, he took the car out of storage after almost 10 years and had it completely gone through… even had a new "Z" put on.

+ for people suck. Except us… we're fine.

[SS Spoiler]

My brother and I went to a wings and wheels car/air show at Osceola Wisconsin. We left the DeLorean with the doors up and did
a walk about. Then we got the bright idea to go ride the steam train that was there. Didn't know it took five hours. When we got back
everyone was gone, my cars doors were still up, and NOTHING was missing. Even my Valentine One radar detector was still on the dash.
Maybe there's some truth to Minnesota nice.



Paul Cerny #2691
now Kalispell, MT

[mluder]

My boss has an early 80's Porsche 911 Targa and he has had the valve stem caps stole twice from our parking lot right in front of the building.
They are not cheap to replace as I understand...

Cheers
Steven

[Roman Legion]

I'm lucky my Mustang is so common, nobody steals anything off it. When the car is out of my line of sight, the windows will be up and I always lock the doors. I've noticed hand prints on the windows, I always assumed it was someone looking to see if I had anything worth stealing inside or maybe they wanted to see what my car's interior looked like, but again, my car is so common for that one. I just never keep anything of value in the car unless I have to and even then, it's entirely out of sight.

Sorry to hear people stealing from your cars, I've never had it happen, but I can see how angry I'd be if it happened to me.

[NightFlyer]

I always leave my car wide open and personally unattended at shows when I go to get some food/drink and/or check out the other rides - never had anything stolen yet (knock on wood), and I always place a stainless 'DMC' license plate between the open doors which anyone could easily lift if they wanted to steal it, as seen in the pic. Not to mention that I also have the parcel shelf loaded up with the parts and shop manuals, a california duster, my 'DMC' sweatshirt, etc. I guess I assume that those parked around me and other spectators will keep a close enough eye on things to keep people honest.

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