Vandals strike again dammit.

[Dan in NZ]

I washed my car on Sunday, so it was looking great. Tuesday morning, I go to use the car again, and I see footprints on the hood and a nice dent in the raised section. Also where the battery sits under the hood, two of the pins that hold the hood liner in place have pushed some small dents up.

Earlier this year the car was keyed, right down to the metal. Had to get the panel repainted, because it was starting to rust.

I guess this is just part of living in a university town...

[Nick.Hay]

I'd cry...

I'm off to uni next year, and am a bit dubious about taking the BMW with me...

[pundit]

I washed my car on Sunday, so it was looking great. Tuesday morning, I go to use the car again, and I see footprints on the hood and a nice dent in the raised section. Also where the battery sits under the hood, two of the pins that hold the hood liner in place have pushed some small dents up.

Earlier this year the car was keyed, right down to the metal. Had to get the panel repainted, because it was starting to rust.

I guess this is just part of living in a university town...
Just find out where they live, something of theirs they really like and then trash it in front of them and wish them a nice day!... Scumbags!

[Incantation]

sorry to hear that man.. no alarm?

[rickm]

Just find out where they live, something of theirs they really like and then trash it in front of them and wish them a nice day!... Scumbags!

Like one of their sheep.

I've had mine shot at by a BB gun recently, I know who did it I just need to catch that POS anywhere near here again. Damn kids.

[Dan in NZ]

The problem here, is living near the university and town center... Every weekend there's a constant stream of drunk people walking past. A friend down the road has a Mercedes, and his grill star and headlight wipers have been ripped off so many times he just goes without.

If you have an alarm, people just set it off every five minutes...

What I need, is to connect the positive lead of the battery to the chassis, so that if someone touches the car it grounds through their body...

[E34-520iSE]

Sorry to hear about what happened to your car - it's bad news. Is there any off-road parking nearby? Or someone with a long driveway that'll allow you to park your car on it for a small fee?

Cheers,

Shaun

[SRR2]

What I need, is to connect the positive lead of the battery to the chassis, so that if someone touches the car it grounds through their body...

Eh, let me guess. You're a psychology major? History? Ancient romance languages? I KNOW you're not in any technical discipline! :)

Now seriously. Think about what you said here. You're proposing to connect the positive lead of the battery to the chassis of the car, which is already connected to the NEGATIVE lead. Um, seems to me that that's a prescription for AN EXPLODING BATTERY! IOW, ain't gonna work, Dan. Besides, 12V won't hurt a flea, though it wouldn't matter if you had a 100,000 Volt battery in there and had its posive lead connected to the chassis, there'd still be nothing making a complete circuit to ground, which is what I suspect you had in mind in the first place (give them a shock they'd remember?).

Now, on the other hand, I do remember once seeing a web site where a guy with the same problem you have cooked up a taser-like non-leathal high-voltage shocker that had a little pigtail that dragged on the ground to make the ground connection, and that energized the chassis to a fairly high voltage. Dunno how successful the idea was in practice (what happens when the tires got wet in the rain?), or whether he was able to defend himself from the reckless homicide charges that probably happened when some moron with a heart condition accidentally touched his car and fell over dead. Some time spent at Google will probably find the info on how to do this if you really want to pursue it.

[Qube]

That's absolutely horrible! Though I imagine it's a cheaper fix than getting brake fluid on it or keyed again!

Anyway... so... we're talking something like James Bond had... some type of electric field. Shields up!

[genphreak]

bad news Paul. I was walking home 2 weeks back around 9pm and there was some uni student girl in the street near Syndey Uni, screaming at some person on her mobile. She was more and more upset, then she really lost it and jumped on the bonnet of a little Honda. She screamed down the phone and started jumping up and down in anger... bang bang bang and then then she went for the roof bang bang banga bang and then the boot and off... she went loopy.

Count oursleves lucky guys, that car was an insurance write off. A real mess. the metal is thins as ****...

[Incantation]

yea man either that or install some motion detector camera to catch the bastards red handed

[Kalevera]

bad news Paul. I was walking home 2 weeks back around 9pm and there was some uni student girl in the street near Syndey Uni, screaming at some person on her mobile. She was more and more upset, then she really lost it and jumped on the bonnet of a little Honda. She screamed down the phone and started jumping up and down in anger... bang bang bang and then then she went for the roof bang bang banga bang and then the boot and off... she went loopy.

Count oursleves lucky guys, that car was an insurance write off. A real mess. the metal is thins as ****...
....Especially if she was big boned :)

[Dan in NZ]

I wasn't actually serious about connecting the positive lead to the chassis... And yes, even if I did, I would disconnect the negative lead first. Of course if I did invent some kind of shocking device, I would add remote control to it... I don't like the idea of electrocuting myself every time I use the car.

I got a scholorship in Physics, and I'm just about to graduate Pharmacology with Honours... So I'm not as dumb as I make out!

Two lots of damage in one year... Not so bad maybe. I'm trying to sell the car at the moment, so not too worried about it. I'll just get a panelbeater to pop the dent out.

It's just drunk stupid people thinking it's funny to damage other peoples property, not much that can be done about it. Rest assured, if I did catch the people, it would be straight to court!

[Gayle]

Hmm
Selling car
Graduating with honors in pharmacology

I smell a new job with big bucks. Is there another BMW in your future or are you going to desert us?

[Dan in NZ]

There will always be bmw's in my future. I've only ever owned bmw, so have been thinking about trying something else, but always come back to bmw. E39 540's are becoming very cheap here, and I have developed a need for speed...

If I move to Australia, their used car market is way overpriced, so would probably get an E36 328i... Or an Alfa Romeo 156. Maybe even a Land Rover Discovery II.

At the moment, I'm just focussing on finishing uni, and getting a job...

[Bill'93Touring]

I mean, what possesses people to jump up on a car, anyway?

In my case, it was two fighting pit bulls. It's midnight, I'm in the land of nod, and I hear the car alarm go off. Wander outside (in the buff, of course), and there's a guy JUMPING up and down on my hood, and banging it with a stick! I scream at him from across the intersection, but being naked, sleepy, and in a bad part of town, I do not tackle and kill him. I get dressed, grab some protection, and go outside to find that his (unleashed) pit bull is fighting with another one. At midnight. He's up on my hood like a girl fleeing a mouse. Messed it up bad. I messed him up. Cops came, his dad came, cops called it a "necessity" to mash my hood because he felt himself to be in danger. Dad threatened to sue me for hurting his kid. I asked dad to pay my $250 insurance deductable. Total mess. Now the kid is vandalizing my other property. So he'll get his, when the time is right.

So, about the coil shocker thing....can someone post instructions please!?

Bill

[emw525E34]

Dan,
I am absolutely shocked that some Dunedin people are like that. Footprints on the hood, OMG!.

I heard that some parts of Auckland were like that but hardly in South Island!.
Being a Wellingtonian before, it has been good except for Porirua area....
Get that dent fixed and probably don't wash the car as clean if you were to park it by the roadside.

[winfred]

must be catching, some ****wad door'd the **** out of my nice black e30s 1/4, so hard it left a pair of dents one at the top and bottom of the crease, everytime i walk up to the drivers door i get pissed again

[TheDuke]

Well, will your insurance cover it? I think the best way to go is to get theft/vandalism package. It costs me only few bucks extra for theft. I know the pain when some ******* hurts my baby. I had my passenger door dented at the beginning of the summer. Some kids playing ball, never caught them. Lucky for me I know a good cheap body shop. Anyways I used to park my car on a parking lot next to my house, since the incident my father parks his Toyota pickup on the lot and I got the honorable space right in front of our home.

[Dan in NZ]

A panelbeater said they can't really just pop it out, never looks right. Was estimated NZD$450 to fix and repaint it. The excess on my insurance for malicious damage is only $250, so for that I could get a nicely repainted front end...

Of course, I'm selling the car soon, so might just forget about it. The car is hardly worth anything, so I don't think anyone will be too worried about a little dent.

[Paul in NZ]

either that dan or wait till you do sel and get it tidied up then...you need to get rear ended,then the insurance will pay for all the paint......you will pay a bit more for the extra labour....Thats how i got rid of all the stone chips....

[Dan in NZ]

I've been trying for ages to get rear ended, whenever I see a big truck tailgating me I slam on the brakes, it's harder than you'd think to get hit.

[1995 525i]

I washed my car on Sunday, so it was looking great. Tuesday morning, I go to use the car again, and I see footprints on the hood and a nice dent in the raised section. Also where the battery sits under the hood, two of the pins that hold the hood liner in place have pushed some small dents up.

Earlier this year the car was keyed, right down to the metal. Had to get the panel repainted, because it was starting to rust.

I guess this is just part of living in a university town...
get what we call , here in the states, a beater. Meaning a crappy car that runs. Use this as your around town driver and park your precious somewhere safe. Here in the states we can find beaters for $3-600. That investment will pay for itself if it keeps those terds (small pieces of crap) from inflicting anymore damage on your car.

Regards,

Michael

[Dan in NZ]

Yeah, I was planning on getting a "beater", but can't even give away the E34. With 206,000km and gas prices hitting $1.40 a liter, it's only worth about $4000 at the moment, people that have $4k to spend on a car don't want an ancient euro... So I suppose that makes the E34 a beater...