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my headlights were stolen - is this a new trend?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by jdbo, Mar 11, 2005.

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  1. jdbo

    jdbo New Member

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    I am a proud, geeky owner of a 2005 Prius w/ the #4 option package*; I work and live in the Porter/Davis Square area in Cabridge/Somerville (by Boston, MA) and have been (foolishly?) using street parking. Two weeks ago, when parking on the Cambridge/Somerville border (a side street between Massachusetts Ave and Davis Square, not a bad part of town by any means) the headlights were stolen from my Prius during the wee hours.

    Thank G** for comprehensive insurance coverage, as between parts and labor this is costing about $5k to repair (there was hood and fender damage, as well as electrical system damage, incl. a 6-week backordered part that has to be shipped from Japan... talk about adding insult to injury).

    Aside from trolling for sympathy ;), my real reason for posting is to discover whether this is something that I'll have to watch out for in the future, or if it was some sort of twist mistake on the part of the thieves? I only ask this because:
    a) This is the first that the appraiser, dealership, or alarm shop has heard about the headlights being stolen from a Prius, and they appeared a bit surprised (they're used to this happening w/ Lexus/Audi vehicles)
    B) The car was 90% covered with snow at the time of the theft, though the front of the car, incl. lights were somewhat visible (I walked past the car several hours before the theft while it was snowing, and the SUV in front of my car was partially blocking the falling snow).
    c) though I haven't done complete research yet, I haven't found Lexus/Audi headlights that appear compatible with the unusual Prius headlight shape (i.e. I don't see how Prius lights would be that valuable on the black market if they won't FIT anything besides a Prius)

    The alarm shop I checked with discussed installing headlight-attached alarms/securing the headlights to make them more difficult to remove (unf. that will cost more as this will be a first-time operation); I'm interested, but also want to find out if anyone else has had a similar experience or had heard of any such thing (searching this site/the web did not yield any similar events), or if there's any eveidence that I'm on the "cutting edge" of an ugly trend.

    (I did spot a thread regarding valdalism to Prius's, but given that my car is unadorned outside of a "Gollum" window sticker [I said I was a geek] in my rear side window, and that the car was untouched beyond the front end I'm assuming that vandalism wasn't the goal in this case.)

    Any comments or advice are much appreciated, thanks!

    jdbo

    * Package #4 -- includes driver and front passenger seat-mounted side and front and rear side curtain airbags; Smart Key System; and High Intensity Discharge (HID) headlamps, integrated fog lamps and Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/2005/prius/options.html
     
    #1 jdbo, Mar 11, 2005
  2. Frank Hudon

    Frank Hudon Senior Member

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    ok your the first, make sure that your the last.
     
    #2 Frank Hudon, Mar 11, 2005
  3. cpwaites

    cpwaites New Member

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    FWIW, my understanding is that there are very few parts that the Prius shares with any other vehicle, so I would doubt the headlights are.
     
    #3 cpwaites, Mar 11, 2005
  4. SyZyGy

    SyZyGy New Member

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    Watch ebay for a pair of headlights that came from a Prius. They could be them.
     
    #4 SyZyGy, Mar 11, 2005
  5. Ken S

    Ken S Member

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    HID theft is all the rage in South Florida.
     
    #5 Ken S, Mar 11, 2005
  6. hdrygas

    hdrygas New Member

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    There was a post on this lost in the hack of "our" board (may they be dammed to a special circle of hell) about this it suggested that the bulbs not the whole assembly are being sold and are a hot commodity, also a suggestion that the bulbs with ballast could be used as a "stun gun" (TSAR?). I don't know about the latter but it is becoming the new thing in auto theft. Sorry. :cry: There was a post on this lost in the hack of "our" board (may they be dammed to a special circle of hell) about this it suggested that the bulbs not the whole assembly are being sold and are a hot commodity, also a suggestion that the bulbs with ballast could be used as a "stun gun" (TSAR?). I don't know about the latter but it is becoming the new thing in auto theft. Sorry.
     
    #6 hdrygas, Mar 11, 2005
  7. V8Cobrakid

    V8Cobrakid Green Handyman

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    supposedly this was a major trend in NY... now.. they cost around 3 or 400 dollars a piece... so.. yeah.. and supposedly they are compatible with a lexus.. although i'm not sure which one. I've seen all of them and none of them match the shape. possibly the SC 330.. but.. not sure.
     
    #7 V8Cobrakid, Mar 11, 2005
  8. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    jdbo,
    That's horrible. Here, have a few of my points. Use them to wipe away your tears.
     
    #8 TonyPSchaefer, Mar 12, 2005
  9. Widdletink

    Widdletink Member

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    I am so sorry to hear of the damage to your car. I read on PriusOnline about this very thing happening to Prius' in the east. They are stealing the headlights for the bulbs and not for the assemblies.

    Some folks were considering putting an "official" looking sticker on their headlights that said that they were non-HID to try to deter thieves. Unfortunately, since the foglights and the HID's are a package deal, these bad folks are going to figure out sooner or later that if you see one you've found the other.

    Still, I think it might not be a bad idea to try the sticker route (after all, most criminals are not M.I.T. grads so...).

    Short of sleeping in your car, or parking it in your living room there is little else you can do to protect your lights if you have to street park.

    I only hope that one of these fools hits the wrong wire one day whilst plying their "trade" and earn's the chance to play the accordian in eternity that they so richly deserve (now that's a geek reference for ya!).

    Take care,

    Tisza
     
    #9 Widdletink, Mar 12, 2005
  10. V8Cobrakid

    V8Cobrakid Green Handyman

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    I'm not an MIT grad.. i learned the difference before i even purchased the car lol

    unfortunetly.. if someone kills themself while trying to steal your car... you would probably be to blame.. or at least if it's caused by electric death.. or somthing like that. law are lame. same if they break into your house and get hurt.

    too bad all electricity from the Hybrid Battery is contained to only the battery when the car is off.
     
    #10 V8Cobrakid, Mar 12, 2005
  11. rick57

    rick57 Member

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    They must have did some serious damage to get those out. Around here I have not heard of them bothering Prius' yet. Hope it's not going to be a trend, :(
     
    #11 rick57, Mar 12, 2005
  12. V8Cobrakid

    V8Cobrakid Green Handyman

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    hmm.. too bad you can't attach a piece to the headlamps to make them included in the alarm system. As is.. your alarm won't go off if they take them. If they had a sensor.. it would help... possibly... maybe.... or.. maybe not...

    in my area it would help.. but there is no crime out here
     
    #12 V8Cobrakid, Mar 12, 2005
  13. jdbo

    jdbo New Member

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    first of all, thanks for the sympathy posts- it may be a bit silly, but because I don't personally know anyone else who drives a prius, it helps to receive consolation from those who do!

    secondly, that's the second time I'd heard about using HID bulbs for stun guns (the first time was from the initial appraiser who completely overlooked the damaged part that has to be shipped from Japan, thus adding over a week to the turnaround time, so I had been discounting his take); I'll look into that some more and will post any specific citations that I can find.

    based on that idea (that the lamps were stolen for the bulbs, and the rest of the assembly was grabbed "because it was there"), It sounds like at least getting the lamps chained into place will be worthwhile, possibly also getting a headlight-specific alarm (dep. on if it'll help with the insurance); I'll post back about what I wind up doing once the car is available again.

    jdbo
     
    #13 jdbo, Mar 13, 2005
  14. DanMan32

    DanMan32 Senior Member

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    You could tap into the hood courtesy switch, which the alarm uses as a hood tamper trigger.
     
    #14 DanMan32, Mar 14, 2005
  15. Bob Allen

    Bob Allen Captainbaba

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    #15 Bob Allen, Mar 14, 2005
  16. mikepaul

    mikepaul Senior Member

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    This is why I *really* wanted to get a Viper alarm that integrated into the normal Prius SS/SE system, rather than requiring a separate fob.

    I already have the Prius fob, plus one for the house alarm, so a third fob is just too much. Problem is, probably not enough vehicles on the road to convince the folks who make Viper to design an integrated package they'd have to push to a specialized market...
     
    #16 mikepaul, Mar 14, 2005
  17. DanMan32

    DanMan32 Senior Member

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    It "integrates" because all you had done was enable the alarm that was there all along.
     
    #17 DanMan32, Mar 14, 2005
  18. Areometer

    Areometer Silver Business Sponsor

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    This is a very disturbing trend indeed

    To jdbo, I am very sorry to hear about this. Today, I was at Wellesley Toyota and the parts manager told me that just their dealership alone has received 3 reports of Prius HID headlamp thefts in the past 2-3 months. This is VERY disturbing indeed. I know the Davis Sq. area well, I park my Prius in that neighborhood too whenever I do lunch at Picante – speaking of which, I am always there on Fridays for lunch when they have the fish special, PM me if you want to meet up or something.

    HID theft (in general) has been a trend in Boston for years. But I think these thieves target the Prius HID for a reason: Supposedly, the Prius is the only car in the US that comes w/ OEM electro-magnetic D2R HID system for Hi/Lo. The parts manager & I suspect that these thieves are stealing these for their own HID retrofit projects. Whenever time permits, let me browse some HID retrofit forums to see if someone brags about some new ‘toys’ of theirs.

    I have a question, after your Prius gets new ‘eyes’, are you never going to park in that neighborhood again? Wouldn’t this come haunting you over & over unless you avoid the area altogether? Oh, the other 2 thefts also happened in the Cambridge area. The thieves live or work there.

    Good luck.
     
    #18 Areometer, Mar 14, 2005
  19. Areometer

    Areometer Silver Business Sponsor

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    This is indeed a trend in Boston

    Just a lil' update for you Bostonian. Wellesley Toyota has so far received 6 reports of Prius HID headlight thefts in the past 6 months. 2 incidences belong to the same unfortunate person who parked in the same cursed town. In each & every case, not just the headlights were stolen but the car itself was severely damaged in order to pry out the headlights.
     
    #19 Areometer, Apr 30, 2005
  20. DaveG

    DaveG Member

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    Owch... At that point if I had HIDs, I'd probably just buy some non-HID units from Canada and install those instead...

    N.
     
    #20 DaveG, Apr 30, 2005
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