offtopic thief question

[brent]

You think car stereo scumbag thieves ripoff units w/out faceplates? Is that common?
Just curious cause I just installed a stereo today. I guess my real question is: does having a detachable faceplate make you LESS likely to get ripped off? Y'all heard anything about this?
I'd trouble the police with my concerns but I have a feeling I'd be on hold a while.
Besides, when I was shopping on Ebay, there's hundreds of units w/out faceplates and hundreds more faceplates only. Maybe I answered my own question. All the same, Brent

[GasWag]

You are most likely to be ripped off when you do not have a detached face plate. But I believe that they can take out the whole unit and get the serial # off it and get a new face plate for it. Best bet is to make sure that you take the face all the time. Sadly most units are not worth the deductable of your insurance and if your cds get ripped off they may not be covered. I would not loose sleep over it.....They'll find someone else that is slipping and take their stuff.

[PhilSine]

I am faithful to the shaft style stereo that fits in the original cutout. I know how much of a pain it was to get in and the way I bolted it in, it will be a real pain to get out. Besides, nobody steals older shaft style stereos with only an autoreverse cassette even if it is a Kenwood.

[Stuka]

ditto here. A din stereo can be pulled in minutes. A old style shaft version takes a LOT longer. Plus nobody wants them.

[Wagillac]

Yeah NO one wants one... That includs us or me atleast. You could keep the shaft one and hide the DIN cd player, or hide the DIN behind a fold down delete plate.

[tomd]

I have friends who have had 'em stolen w/ the faceplate on, w/o a faceplate, and just the faceplate...I'm workin on figuring out how to keep my DIN stereo securely mounted, thinkin need something holding it from the back. The main thing about detachable faceplates, is if you take it off, its not as catchy, like a nice shiny silver face, unless yours has security features like mine, so when you take the face off, there is a LED that flashes...

[Brown Bear]

Originally posted by Stuka:
ditto here. A din stereo can be pulled in minutes. A old style shaft version takes a LOT longer. Plus nobody wants them.Maybe, but a dude I used to work with had the KNOBS stolen off his wrangler once.......go fig. Oh yeah, and a toothbrush....

[AMX factor]

I use a newer style din am/fm/cd changer in my GW. When I installed it I attached 2 decent sized chains to the chassis then bolted those to the firewall back behind the stereo farther in the dash. Takes a little longer to do but it has saved my stereo once already so the extra time and $$ paid for itself. I came out one morning to find someone had popped my wing window and tried to steal my new Kenwood. They didn't get far or were inexperienced thieves as the Kenwood was hanging from the dash by those 2 chains I attached to the stereo chassis/firewall. All I had to do was get a replacement dash bezel and drop it back in place.

[jeepguzzi]

First time mine was stolen, they took the time to trash my cardboard glovebox. Then, the morons cut the dash with tin snips. The idiots still had to unbolt it to get it out. What they got was a very nice stereo that I had been planning to take out because it was broken. When I replaced it, (insurance bought me a new one and replaced the dash!!)I fashioned a steel glovebox liner. The next thieves broke the vent window and made off with only the knobs from the stereo. The glovebox door was left open, $15 in change was left in the console. These are the thieves of today. Mental Midgets.

[ May 24, 2003, 10:00 AM: Message edited by: jeepguzzi ]

[Kaiserjeeps]

My wife used to have a sweet 67 Chevelle. Somebody kept stealing the stereo out of it. She bought another and using silicone glued about four razor blades to the radio on edge facing down. It was the last time it was stolen. She told me there was some blood to clean up but it worked. She moved shortly after that. Figured they would be back for revenge. Some people and all thieves suck!... Cheers...Kaiserjeeps...

[brent]

My choices for securing my DIN are razor blades and chains! What the heck, I was on my way to the Autozone anyway---Brent