1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Someone keyed our Prius

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by tasker109, Jul 5, 2008.

  1. freshmtt

    freshmtt Dachshund Addict

    Joined:
    Apr 23, 2008
    532
    4
    5
    Location:
    Chicago Suburbs
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    I am so sorry this happened to your car!!, I know how pissed off you are right now, and most Wal-marts have really crappy parking lots and unfortunately, lots of low class trashy people shop at wal-mart, so I know the kind of trash that goes up and down those aisles..

    Wal-mart does have Cameras in the parking lot and depending on who their manager is for security, they might be willing to view the tapes for you and put a DVD together for a police report. However, you would have to make a police report first and ask the police officer to contact the APC (Asset Protection Coordinater) at Wal-mart to please view the tapes for that location. The only problem with this is, being a large public shopping area, even if you did see the tape of who keyed the car, chances are you will not even know the person and it would be impossible to ID them for later prosecution.

    My husband is the APC for a Wal-mart near us, and his 2002 Chevy S-10 pickup which is his baby,, had the brand new Tonneau cover sliced up with a razor blade of some sort when he was parked at work. We were infuriated as the Tonneau cover cost over $200 that covers his pick-up bed. It happened at one of the trashier Wal-marts and he was there doing an investigation on some internal theft and he has a strong suspicion it was an employee who was pissed at him as it happened late at night when the real trashy night shift workers are working.

    What is your comprehensive deductible on your insurance?, Hopefully it is not too much, but I understand, even a couple hundred dollars is now a lot of money to fork over vandalism.

    I've started parking near the Lawn and Garden entrance or the entrance to the Tire and Lube section just to get away from the rest of the creepy people that park at our Wal-mart.

    Keep us posted on your repairs,
     
  2. abq sfr

    abq sfr New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 28, 2007
    690
    3
    0
    Location:
    Albuquerque, NM
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    I agree with everything everybody has said about Walmart. I hate it when my wife drags me there. Last time I was there the lady next to me was on her cellphone telling her friend that her boyfriend could not leave their house because he was on house arrest and had a tracker on his leg. Heck, usually things are cheaper at nicer stores!! Security cameras are usually a joke. Yes, you can see the blurry blob that was near your car, that's about it. Somebody pushed a pocket knife into the tire sidewall on my Sienna at Costco... Guess what? Costco put a new tire on it. Think Walmart would do that????? These things happen no matter what car you're driving. Unfortunately that's the way people are these days. All you can do is minimize the chance of it happening to you by shopping at nicer stores or less crowded parts of the parking lot.
     
  3. tasker109

    tasker109 New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2008
    147
    1
    0
    Location:
    Illinois
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    our comprehensive deductible is 500 so thats what we would pay for either estimate. i dont want to turn it in to the insurance company if i dont have to so we will probably take the lesser bid. its obvious that this particular walmart is going downhill because of the customers that come here. even some of the employees are leaving to go to other stores. we have another walmart about 10 minutes or so away and i may just start going there. its in a much nicer area. the problem is that walmart's prices are so much better than everywhere else.....
     
  4. hackIT

    hackIT Oceanic Member

    Joined:
    May 19, 2008
    98
    2
    0
    Location:
    Central Florida
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    I'm really sorry to hear about the damage to your car. It's hard to deal with vandalism, especially when there appears to be no rhyme or reason for the act itself. People just don't grasp how doing something so stupid affects people... especially when it involves a possession that we are obviously all very passionate about.
     
  5. biggus

    biggus Junior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2008
    55
    0
    3
    Location:
    Dublin Ireland
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Try polishing it out with professional fine finishing paste by hand.This stuff is very slightly abrasive but polishes to a shine. You won't do any more damage and you will certainly take the sharp edges off the scrape and make it much less noticable if not make it blend in completely.

    May not have been vandalism could have been a big buckle on somebodies Handbag /purse; the shape of the scrape suggests this.
     
  6. GatorJZ

    GatorJZ Member

    Joined:
    May 25, 2008
    285
    17
    0
    Location:
    Florida
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Without question, report this to the police. They will easily obtain the surveillance video without the necessity of you retaining an attorney. Assuming the incident was captured on video, the tricky part will be identifying the culprit(s). Perhaps you'll get lucky and they will be seen entering a car with a visible tag. If the responsible person(s) are identified and prosecuted, restitution will undoubtedly be a condition of their sentence. Stuff like this annoys me to no end, I hope this works out for you.
     
  7. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2005
    4,089
    468
    0
    Location:
    Bahstahn
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    The curve of the scratch is very smooth, and it's not all that
    deep. I'm tending to agree with the "large buckle" theory or
    that someone brushed against it with a large object or maybe
    themselves in passing. A deliberate keying tends to be more
    ragged, and with less lateral control in a hand holding a small
    object and under stress the path would likely be more random.
    .
    Do you have touch-up paint? It is possible that you could fix
    it acceptably yourself by cleaning the area, filling the line
    with the touch-up, and then doing the previously advised polish
    job over that. Might still be slightly visible, but at least
    sealed against weather. Bottles of touch-up paint should be
    available at the dealers for relatively cheap, certainly cheaper
    than having a body shop do a "perfect" job.
    .
    I suspect that if someone keys my car that's about what I'll
    do, and if it starts to look any more like a bashed-up hooptie
    as a result [more than it does already?!] then maybe they'll
    leave it alone next time.
    .
    I could also comment on the type of people who have to resort
    to feeding an adversarial offshore economy because they think
    they're getting some sort of short-term bargain, but I think
    others have already addressed choices of shopping venue...
    .
    _H*
     
  8. turnbowm

    turnbowm Junior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 17, 2008
    80
    5
    0
    Location:
    So. Calif.
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    You might want to think about some changes in your auto policy. We pay $42/year for $50 deductible on the Comprehensive portion of Prius policy. Rock-damaged windshields, front end damage from flying debris (typically, truck retreads), vandalism, etc...... $50 out of pocket makes this a no-brainer! Something to think about.
     
  9. tasker109

    tasker109 New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2008
    147
    1
    0
    Location:
    Illinois
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius

    wow...thats a great premium for a 50 dollar deductible...ill have to check into it.
     
  10. tasker109

    tasker109 New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2008
    147
    1
    0
    Location:
    Illinois
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    dontcha love the internet???!!! we do all of our banking and insurance with USAA and we access our account online. i just changed our comprehensive deductible from 500 to 50 and it costs a whopping 27 dollars for 6 months for both cars!! we have had to replace several windshields on the lesabre because a road we travel on quite frequently has 2 rock quarries by it. rock trucks are constantly throwing off rocks as they bounce on the road. i truthfully didnt know the deductible would be so cheap. thanks for the tip turnbowm............;)
     
  11. HomeandRanch

    HomeandRanch New Member

    Joined:
    May 25, 2008
    78
    0
    0
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius

    LMAO thanks for posting this. I just changed my deductible form 1k to 50 bucks with USAA. It was only like $38 more for 6 months.

    Thanks again:)
     
  12. tasker109

    tasker109 New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2008
    147
    1
    0
    Location:
    Illinois
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    AWESOME :clap2:
     
  13. tasker109

    tasker109 New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2008
    147
    1
    0
    Location:
    Illinois
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    alright now.....if i havent said it before, i hate the screaming guy billy mays........HOWEVER, he told me about a scratch fix it kit that cost 30 bucks and there was a money back gurantee on it. so i thought....why not? we used it on the lesabre first and it did a really good job so we touched up the keyed scratch on the prius. it isnt totally invisible, but it did a pretty good job. i dont know if it will last a long time or not, but for the moment, its okay.....anybody ever use this stuff??
     
  14. rep308

    rep308 Junior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 31, 2008
    71
    11
    0
    Location:
    suburbs of Boston
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    Limited
    Sorry to hear about the keying. You have to accept there are a lot of hillbillies, rednecks, dumbasses, and white trash who - in their deranged little peabrains - believe the Prius alone is responsible for the current price of fuel, the economic mess, etc

    Try putting a conservative bumper sticker or an NRA sticker on your Prius and park it in compassionate Cambridge MA and count the minutes until you are keyed. Bias and hatred know no bounds
     
  15. heero99

    heero99 Junior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2008
    10
    0
    0
    Location:
    northern california
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Be glad you dont live in PETALUMA CA. Roving band of vandals has been trashing Prii exclusively in this farming communtiy turned suburb, and nothing as trivial as keying.. Misplaced gas price rage by youth trapped in pickup culture I'd guess. And trends start here....
     
  16. fcc

    fcc New Member

    Joined:
    May 16, 2008
    245
    4
    0
    Location:
    Nashua NH
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    i would rather think the cause is that you live in a college town where many
    spoiled brats goto school, never worked a day in their life, and due to wanting
    to be cool among their peers do stupid things. keep in mind, the ones who
    have to work to get through school simply do not have time on their hands
    to go around keying cars and have too much to lose.

    i would blame that before liberal versus conservative thinking. ;-)

    edited to add: i have lived in 4 different cities in MA and i never want to go back.
     
  17. penbed

    penbed New Member

    Joined:
    May 8, 2008
    222
    3
    0
    Location:
    USA-Arkansas
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius


    I live in a town with three college's.
    These type of activities are not what college kids do around here.

    Doing damage to cars is usually from the trash crowd.

    We only have one collage activity that is a major problem.
    Once a year they have a thing called Greek show.
    Major problems!!
     
  18. fcc

    fcc New Member

    Joined:
    May 16, 2008
    245
    4
    0
    Location:
    Nashua NH
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    could be! what i have learned, for example, worcester, MA, was that the
    trash crowd wanted money for their next dime bag and would be more likely
    to smash a window and grab whatever they could. no profit in keying a car...

    the drunk kids from the 8 colleges in that city (probably more, i am forgetting),
    were the ones doing random acts of vandalism. just ask any janitor or maintenance
    man what they think of working on a college campus! you will get an earful. destroyed
    bathrooms, flooded sinks, doors ripped off hinges, broken windows, you name it.

    but everyone's experiences will be different.

    i just have never heard of a case, second hand even, of someone keying a car
    due to a political leaning....
     
  19. Genoz World

    Genoz World ZEN-style living

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2008
    797
    21
    0
    Location:
    La Canada
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    hmmmmmmmm......sounds like trolls that hate our prius's. again i'm fumed about your loss. deductable or not, this should never have happened. i hope it all works out for you.

    cheers
     
  20. rayxoxo

    rayxoxo New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 1, 2008
    39
    0
    4
    Location:
    Sacramento
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius

    Really sorry to hear that people still do such things.

    I have found that you can touch up the scratches yourself or with some friend who isn't color blind and who you feel is capable.

    I know that this may sound silly but after all it is just money.

    I have done it a few times and found a much easier and cheaper way to do it yourself.

    If you go to an auto paint store/s, who usually deal with auto paint shops, they can match up your color on their computer, mix the special paint and also sell it to you in a spray can and also sell you a clear coat to add on after painting.

    Sounds difficult and I thought so the first time I tried it on my BMW motorcycle. I am not a painter and had really never tried it before but decided to give it a try on a $20,000 bike that had been dropped and the body badly scratched.

    Total cost of parts came to about $35 and it came out really well. Couldn't tell where the scratches had been, but I did have to sand it down abit and saved about $3000 in the process.

    Just check around and find out where the auto painters go. You might even be able to get one of the clerks to give you a hand for a few bucks. It is really easy and I know that most of you will doubt your ability but then, I did the same.

    I also thought some one in my neighborhood had keyed my car, later found out that one of their dogs had jumped up on the door. Funny but that made me feel better knowing that no one in the neighborhood was mad at me.

    By the way, it usually is fairly easy to get the clerks to tell you a few trick and they usually get a charge out of being helpful.