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Hybrid owners beware: Thieves taking stickers

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by siliconhybrid, Apr 11, 2007.

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  1. siliconhybrid

    siliconhybrid Member

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    San Jose Mercury Link

    By Gary Richards
    Mercury News

    Tanya Cecchin was cruising on Capitol Expressway, easily beating the commute traffic by driving in the carpool lane.

    Then she noticed a San Jose motorcycle cop's flashing lights in the rear-view mirror of her sand-colored Prius. Silly officer, she thought. Doesn't he see my carpool-lane stickers?

    No, he didn't, and for good reason. The stickers on her rear bumper had been stolen.

    It may be California's newest crime: The Department of Motor Vehicles says it's receiving two to three dozen requests a month for replacement stickers from hybrid owners who say they've been ripped off. Thieves, these drivers theorize, are peeling off their yellow carpool decals in hopes of selling them.

    "We knew it was only a matter of time," California Highway Patrol officer Mike Wright said.

    That's right. The decals became more valuable after the state closed the door on hybrid-exemption stickers in January, stopping after 85,000 owners of the clean-burning, high-mileage vehicles were given access to fast-moving diamond lanes. Since then, it appears some crooks have found a new opportunity to make a few bucks.

    Or maybe a few thousand.

    Someone put an offering on eBay in February seeking $10,000 for an extra set of carpool stickers sent mistakenly by the DMV (there were no takers and the ad was removed). And a story last month in USA Today reported that hybrids with carpool stickers are selling for as much as $4,000 more than those without the decals.

    Cecchin suspects the thieves struck while she was eating lunch near the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose on March 29. She may even have interrupted their dastardly act.

    As she unlocked her car that day, the driver of an idling pickup asked if she was leaving, as if he wanted her spot. But as she left, she said, she never saw the pickup pull into her vacated space. She noticed two men standing nearby. Yet she did not notice that three of her four stickers were gone.

    Until the next day when Cecchin, a fundraiser for a Campbell non-profit that provides meals for the needy, was heading to work on the expressway.

    "I was kind of patronizing to the cop," said Cecchin, 39, of San Jose. "I thought, `You poor fool, didn't you see my stickers?'"

    His reply: What stickers?

    Ticket book in hand, the cop was ready to write a $360 ticket. She jumped out of her car.

    "I told him I really had the stickers and he was saying prove it," Cecchin said. Neither of them noticed that a lone sticker remained on her front bumper.

    Fortunately, she was carrying the DMV's carpool registration card. Proof positive. The cop put down his pen.

    "He was so nice," Cecchin said of the officer. "He felt really sorry for me and advised me not to use the carpool lane until I had new stickers."

    Thieves and even some would-be buyers could be in for a surprise. Just like plain ol' registration tags, the carpool stickers are treated chemically so they crumble apart if tampered with, DMV spokesman Mike Miller said. And, more stridently, the word "void" appears on the faces of stickers that get peeled.

    "I doubt someone would be able to get them off intact," he said.

    There were no scratch marks on Cecchin's Prius, nothing to indicate that thieves had a difficult time removing them. Some drivers might make easy targets.

    Miller was following a Civic hybrid in Sacramento recently and noticed that two of the Honda's carpool stickers were only loosely attached. One was hanging over a wheel well and the other was placed on the edge of the car.

    "Someone could have gone and torn them off without much effort," he said. "It's probably not wise to stick them on that way."

    Cecchin wishes the DMV would let hybrid drivers place decals on the inside of their windows, as she suspects others might be victims, too.

    How much would someone pay for a stolen sticker?

    "I would first go to church and talk to my minister, get dispensation, and then offer $145.88 for it,' said Don Schmidek of Monte Sereno. "But I would not be surprised that some people would offer $1,000 for such a privilege."
     
    #1 siliconhybrid, Apr 11, 2007
  2. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    Hard to believe. The DMV says they're self destroying, if/when you try and remove them. Just tried to put a pin hole in one to remove an air bubble, and it wasn't a pretty sight.
     
    #2 hill, Apr 11, 2007
  3. F8L

    F8L Protecting Habitat & AG Lands

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hill @ Apr 11 2007, 12:19 PM) [snapback]421570[/snapback]</div>
    I agree.

    I accidently put the bigger HOV sticker on the wrong side of the car so I tried to peel it back off and it started coming apart and left half of it on the car. I do not see how you could remove the sticker and have it still work unless you also cut out part of the panel it's stuck to.

    I think this is a bum story just like the flashing your headlights at oncoming cars and having gang members kill you.
     
    #3 F8L, Apr 11, 2007
  4. jezroj

    jezroj New Member

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    If you try to remove the sticker, they will separate and the words void void void void void void ... will appear all over the sticker. I can not see how they are removing them, unless the owner used some sort of creative way i.e. sticking the original sticker to a magnet or other type of removable product.
     
    #4 jezroj, Apr 11, 2007
  5. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    All the more reason to take down that whole idiotic system.
    .
    _H*
     
    #5 hobbit, Apr 11, 2007
  6. uclabruins

    uclabruins Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jezroj @ Apr 11 2007, 02:02 PM) [snapback]421638[/snapback]</div>

    That's what I did. I put my stickers on magnets, so hopefully no one will steal my stickers. However, only the 2 big ones are on the outside. I put the 2 smaller ones on the inside of the car windows.
     
    #6 uclabruins, Apr 11, 2007
  7. siliconhybrid

    siliconhybrid Member

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    so when the carpool priviledge is over at the end of 2010, how do we all have to remove the stickers without leaving marks on the body.
    Man, I wish they'll just extend the carpool priviledge for ever with no time limit, to reward those people who pioneer hybrid sales.
     
    #7 siliconhybrid, Apr 11, 2007
  8. F8L

    F8L Protecting Habitat & AG Lands

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(siliconhybrid @ Apr 11 2007, 05:21 PM) [snapback]421750[/snapback]</div>
    Adhesive remover should work fine then clean up the area and repolish/wax the car. :)
     
    #8 F8L, Apr 11, 2007
  9. priusenvy

    priusenvy Senior Member

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    There is a more sinister possibility. Rather than thieves, it could be hybrid haters who just want to deface Priuses and inconvenience their owners.
     
    #9 priusenvy, Apr 11, 2007
  10. F8L

    F8L Protecting Habitat & AG Lands

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusenvy @ Apr 11 2007, 06:05 PM) [snapback]421781[/snapback]</div>
    So Art Spinela is running around tearing off our stickers? The bastard!
     
    #10 F8L, Apr 11, 2007
  11. Ghostrider

    Ghostrider New Member

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    Actually I believe they can be removed - just not sure how. Our Texas vehicle registration
    is a sticker on the inside of the windshield. On another car i needed a new windshield. The installer told
    me he could move the sticker (which is not removable according to DOT) over and he did. It looked
    just like a new decal but he wouldn't tell me how he did it. The article said no marks were left. The only issue
    I see here is the buyer... I would not think think a normal car owner would know how to do this...
     
    #11 Ghostrider, Apr 11, 2007
  12. iaowings

    iaowings New Member

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    When I was active duty I saw a Marine remove the DOD decal from his old truck and put it on his new truck ( a big big no no )using a heat gun water and a tube of something. Sometimes they get their trucks lifted to the point that they cant get it certified to be on base so they lift decals because no body questions it if it has decals for some reason.

    Btw those decals fall apart when you just try to peal them. When I got my prius the dealer took my decal off the old car with a razor it just crumpled into peaces.
     
    #12 iaowings, Apr 11, 2007
  13. kimgh

    kimgh Member

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    I read the SJMerc story.

    Even if it's happening (for whatever reason), there is no way suggested to prevent it from happening. I can't think of anything either. If it happens, it happens.

    I guess I'll add one new inspection to my "pre-flight": not only check for flat/soft tires, but check for missing decals!
     
    #13 kimgh, Apr 11, 2007
  14. bugmenot

    bugmenot New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ghostrider @ Apr 11 2007, 08:44 PM) [snapback]421805[/snapback]</div>
    A hairdryer will do the trick - though I don't expect to see thieves trying to remove my decals with a hairdryer (w/long extension cord) in the Wal-Mart parking lot...

    To the poster who placed their rear decal in their windshield, you probably want to reconsider that. I've read in other posts that CHP will cite you for doing so, and your only recourse would be to spend a day in court to get the violation corrected ($10) after having stuck the decals on your car. I'd just use double-sided sticky paper and hope the thieves don't figure it out...
     
    #14 bugmenot, Apr 12, 2007
  15. iaowings

    iaowings New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bugmenot @ Apr 12 2007, 02:16 PM) [snapback]422101[/snapback]</div>

    You buy the really hot commercial heat guns (from lows or some other place.) and run it from another car/truck. If it is true that these stickers can make a car worth more money or be sold in an unrepeatable manner the effort might be worth it. Hell if some unrepeatable sealer is offering 1k for the stickers and still able to make a profit he is going to do it especially if he is buying cars without the sticker. Even if the sticker is registered to a specific vin what cop is going to get close enough at highway speed to read and then type in all the info just to check on a person driving in the carpool lane.
     
    #15 iaowings, Apr 12, 2007
  16. Vagabond

    Vagabond Active Member

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    Has anyone had to order replacement stickers yet? I know on the form they specify if they were stolen or not. I would assume it's like a license plate and that you have to get a police report and hand that in when you give the form to the DMV. I was thinking about order a replacement set to keep around. Losing the carpool lane for 2 weeks while the DMV struggles through the paperwork makes my eyes cross.
     
    #16 Vagabond, Apr 13, 2007
  17. zaxinc

    zaxinc New Member

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    About 3 weeks ago I caught some jackarse trying to steal my stickers. I came out of the Northridge Shopping Center and saw a guy crouching at the rear bumper of my car. When I came up to him he had a razor and was trying to scrap off the sticker. Luckily he was just starting and I was able to scare him off after much obscenities and threats (apologies to the kids in the lot who overheard me).
     
    #17 zaxinc, Apr 14, 2007
  18. cairo94507

    cairo94507 Active Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Vagabond @ Apr 13 2007, 11:24 AM) [snapback]422702[/snapback]</div>
    I had to order a replacement set when my back bumper had to be repainted. Cost $8.00, filled out the DMV form and explained the bumper had been damaged and I needed replacement stickers. 2 weeks later new stickers, with new numbers of course. No police reports required.
     
    #18 cairo94507, Apr 14, 2007
  19. Vagabond

    Vagabond Active Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cairo94507 @ Apr 14 2007, 07:10 AM) [snapback]423199[/snapback]</div>

    New numbers? I guess that doesn't matter. Thanks for that.
     
    #19 Vagabond, Apr 15, 2007
  20. YoDaddyAlex

    YoDaddyAlex Member

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    I placed my front and back stickers a little too high, wish I could just replace them with the same number and place them lower, if I Get new numbers, it will throw it all off and might lead to problems down the road... ugh
     
    #20 YoDaddyAlex, Apr 16, 2007
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